Alexandria
by Daughters of Night
Summary: Who are you? Why do you look like Max?" Her amber eyes widened slightly. "How do you know-?" she was cut off. "ALEX! Two minutes!" She grabbed me and took off. That was where I must've hit my head, and blacked out.
1. Rescue: Fang

**Yay! First story! Whoo-hoo! **

**Here's a better version of my summary:**

**Fang has been abandoned (I'm aware it's happened before) by the flock, for reasons he doesn't understand/ Then he's found by a group of freaky--even freakier than him--teenagers, and finds a new family, with a slight twist. His sister, Violet, and her family are elementals-able to control an element. The only problem with his new life is the leader. Alexandria holds something against him, and doesn't find out what until he turns into a Shadow elemental. Will she continue to make his life hell, or will can he convince her to trust him long enough to shut down her pride and see that he loves her?**

* * *

**Fang POV:**

I snarled as I watched the Flock leave. I couldn't believe them. I was sitting here, in a dungeon, watching as the people who I thought I could trust fly away.

While I waited for the bomb to go off.

Yeah, you heard me right. I'm at an abandoned School, waiting to be blown to pieces. Yay me, right?

So anyway, I have to wait about 10 more minutes before I'm blown to . Or wherever mutant freaks that nobody want go.

_BOOM!!_

My head jerked up, seeing as how that wasn't the bomb. Had the others come back? Had they just been faking the School or something?

"Dang, V. Could you loosen up a little and stop acting like you're about to go psycho?" I frowned. I didn't know anyone called V, but it sounded so familiar.

"You know what, Alex? I'm already psycho, according to just about everyone, and so are you. Can we do what we came here to do before the bomb goes off?" the girl, V, said.

"She has a point." the guy's voice sounded bored and airy.

"Shut it, Skye." said another girl, probably Alex.

Footsteps echoed down the hall as the strangers ran down towards my cage. They had just past mine when one of them suddenly stopped.

"Oh now what?" V asked.

There wasn't a reply, just soft footsteps walking to the door of my cage. I tensed, for some reason hoping they wouldn't find me, and yet, hoping they would.

_THUD!_ I saw the cage door fall on the ground, and a figure stepped in.

The girl had short red hair that spiked out at the ends. Her eyes were this weird color, like amber, but not exactly. She had enough curves that would have made Iggy drool, dark skin, and was wearing camo pants, a black tank top, combat boots, and a black jacket. For some reason, her face looked kinda like a wolf's. Don't ask me why.

"Can you talk?" she asked softly, dropping to her knees and grabbing my chains.

"Nope. Not at all." I replied, rolling my eyes. She rolled hers as well.

"Half the mutants we spring can't, you know. Don't take it offensively." the lock clicked and she helped me up.

"Alexandria Shadow Ride, if you don't get out right now, we're gonna get blown up, and Gaia will only bring us back to life to kill us again." I heard V hiss. My mouth dropped.

Alexandria or whatever her name was, looked like Max.

_Way_ too much like Max.

"Can you walk okay?" I looked back at the look-a-like.

"Who the hell are you? Why do you look like Max?" Her eyes widened.

"How do you know-?"

"ALEX!! 2 MINUTES!!!" She grabbed me and took off.

That was where was my head hit something hard, and I blacked out.

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**So did you like it?? I'd love you forever if you reviewed. Forever.**

**And I'll give you nachos.**

**Thanks to everyoneisMISunderstood for letting me rant on her. ^.^**


	2. My Sister: Fang

**Hey guys! Sorry, it's taken forever for me to update. Don't blame me, blame the stupid computers and the Happy Fairy Bunnies. And softball. **

**I've got two chapters here, so I hope I'm sorta forgiven. And thanks for the reviews. Truthfully I though I'd get about three (from everyoneisMISunderstood, secretlover101, and the7thflockmember), but yay! I got more!**

**For anyone like Prima Ballerina 1, the flock IS going to make an appearance, although I might just make another story and add them. Maybe like a series!**

**But anyway, I forgot to do a disclaimer/claimer thingy last chapter. Might as well do it now.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fang or any ideas from Maximum Ride, blah, blah, blah, boring, boring, boring, chocolate, Bob, Fred, bombs.**

**Claimer: I **_**do **_**own Alexandria, Skye, Thor, Violet, and Gaia. Whatever. You get the point.**

**So, here's the second chapter of my story…**

* * *

**.:PREVIOUSLY:.**

"_**Who the heck are you? Why do you look like Max?" Her eyes widened a fraction of an inch.**_

"_**How do you know-?"**_

"_**ALEX! 2 MINUTES!" She grabbed me and took off. **_

_**That was where my head hit something hard, and I blacked out.**_

_6 hours later, somewhere in eastern Tennessee…_

"God, Alex, what did you do kill him?" I heard a boy say.

"Shut up, Thor." Alex snapped.

"Aaawww, see how defensive she's getting? Could _the _Alexandria Shadow Ride have fallen for a boy?" another boy asked sarcastically.

"Skye, Thor, you're 5 seconds away from getting your butts kicked from here to China. If you don't frickin' _shut up_, I'll tear your heads off and leave it for the dogs." There were several laughs at this, and I wondered how many people were here.

Deciding to take a risk, I opened an eye.

There were five of them, all sitting around a fire, facing me. The closest was a guy with silver hair and silvery-blue eyes. His arm was draped around a pixie-like girl with brown hair that had green streaks and blazing green eyes. Next to her was another girl, although she looked a lot like me. The difference was that she had dark purple-blackish hair, and, well, she was a girl. Duh. Anyway, she was leaning against a boy with light blue hair and blue eyes.

Then there was Alex.

Her eyes glowed with light from the fire, and the shadows danced along her cheekbones. She looked more like a wolf than before, which added to her already exotic looks. Her long, slender figure was wrapped up in an extra long sweater and she was wearing the jeans I'd first seen her in.

I don't know what it was that made me want to stroke her tired face, what made me want to hold her and tell her it'd be alright. Whatever it was, I hated it.

Just then, she looked over my way, locking eyes with mine.

"Our guest as honored us with waking up." she said with a snort. The green-eyed pixie girl got up and walked (although it seemed like she danced) gracefully over to me.

"Hi. How's your head? It looked like it hit something pretty hard." I sat up and groaned slightly, rubbing my forehead.

"I've had worse," I told Pixie. She just shrugged.

"Want something to eat? We got some Cokes, couple of fudge bars, and, uuumm, oh couple of hot dogs. No buns." Now I shrugged.

"Hot dog would be nice." she nodded and danced off to a backpack near Alex.

"I'd like a hot dog," the silver-haired boy said, looking over at her.

"Get your own then." Alex and the other girl snickered.

"So how does it feel, Thor? Your soulmate's up and getting a hot dog for a dude we don't know, and she tells you to get your own."

"So, Alex, how does it feel not having a soulmate?" he retorted. This was obviously the wrong question to ask, since everyone burst out laughing. Pixie nearly dropped the hot dog she was holding, but managed to catch it before it fell.

Alex grinned. "It feels awesome. Nobody holding me back and I've got my freedom. Screw soulmates."

Oka-ay. This was a little awkward.

Pixie danced back to me and handed over two hot dogs. They disappeared pretty quick.

"So how ya feeling Fang?" the dark haired girl asked.

"Wait, how do you know my name?" My defenses went up. Was she working for the School?

Alex snickered, "Ha! Now you owe me five bucks."

"It's not over yet, Flamehead." she snapped, sticking her tongue out.

That did it.

"_Violet?"_

I couldn't believe it.

Sitting in front of me was a girl I thought had died ten years ago at the School.

Violet Shadow.

My sister.

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**That was short…**

**Review?**


	3. Let The Games Begin: Fang

**GAH!! I hate TCAPs!! Stupid, stupid, stupid!! *runs around screaming* O_O**

**Sorry for the people who are like, "OMFG!! She actually freaking updated!!' and then like five second later you get **_**another **_**thing that says I updated. The computer had screwed up some stuff, so I had to delete the chapter, then put it back up. Sorry dudes of the Internet.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything that's in the Maximum Ride books. Yet. *cackles evily* o_O**

**Claimer: I own the E Flock (a.k.a: Alex, Skye, Thor, Violet, Gaia), and the iPod that I left in my locker. This makes me very sad. *crys* o_O I also own that little guy by the star. He's Bob's other buddy.**

**Half-Way Claimer: I know I'm not the only person with the idea of elementals, but I **_**think**_** I'm the only one with these kinds of elementals. If I'm not…well to bad!!**

**Anyway, here goes the story:**

* * *

**.:PREVIOUSLY:.**

_**Sitting in front of me was a girl I thought had died ten years ago at the School.**_

_**Violet Shadow.**_

_**My sister.**_

A big grin lit her face and she turned back to Alex.

"Ha! Now you owe me five bucks." she imitated Alex's voice, and Alex chuckled.

"Yeah, so, anyway. Fang, this is Gaia or Pixie as we call her sometimes, Thor-the silver haired dude-Gaia's soulmate, Skye-blue haired guy-my soulmate, and then Alex, or Flamehead."

"We call her a bunch of different names as well, but we're no supposed to say them within hitting distance," Skye told me seriously.

"It's so nice to be appreciated, guys. Thanks for making me feel so much better." Alex rolled her eyes.

"You're welcome." Skye and Thor seemed to like annoy her.

Alex ignored them. "Alright, so now that everybody's all buddy-buddy now can we get to the other issues?"

"Thought you supposed to save that until after the second Coke." Skye said, looking at the can in her hands.

Again, she ignored them, looking at me. "So how do you know Max?"

I snorted, "Oh yeah, 'cause I'm gonna tell you everything just because you're with my sister. Uh-huh. Right."

She looked ready to bit my head off when Violet spoke up.

"Oh come on Alex, leave him alone. You would have done the same thing if you were him." she turned to me. "Alex is Maximum Ride's twin sister."

My jaw almost dropped, but I managed to act cool. After the past few hours, I felt like I didn't know Max anymore.

"Okay, so you know how we know her. Now how do _you_ know her?" Alex said, throwing a glare at Violet.

I cleared my throat, trying to take in everything that had been thrown at me today. "Max was my friend at the School, before the rest of the flock. We escaped later with a whitecoat named Jeb, then he disappeared two years later. Max took over after he left. Two years later, Angel was recaptured by the School and, after we got her back, we've been on the run ever since. This morning she left me at that School and you guys stepped in."

They were all silent for a second.

"Well I guess that just sucks fer you." Skye said in a weird accent. Violet smacked his arm, but I just laughed. Don't ask me why.

"So what's with the soulmate crap you guys were talking about?"

Violet shrugged. "It's an elemental thing."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, _that_ narrows it down Violet, thanks."

Pixie (it's going to take forever for me to get it right) laughed. "An elemental is a person who has control over an element, like the five of us. Each element has its own color, and they are usually pretty obvious. There's red for fire, black for shadow, silver for lighting, yellow for light, green and brown for earth, light blue for air, pink for love, and dark blue for water. Then there's the not so obvious. Black with silver specks for space, purple for spirit, and this kind of fuchsia for energy. Fire, Love, Space, and Energy are the rarest. You can usually tell what kind of elemental you're dealing with by looking at the color of their hair. Most elementals only have one element, it's rare to have two, and I think Alex is the only person I know to have three elements. Are you with me so far?" I nodded with a yawn.

She laughed again, "I know it sounds boring but still--you asked." Violet took over from there.

"Elementals are kinda like Stephenie Meyer's vampires. Strong, fast--"

"Even all that hot, immortal 'suck your blood' crap?" I asked, closing my eyes slightly.

"Depends on your point of view of the hot stuff. I don't know about living forever, since I'm only fourteen, but we definitely don't drink blood."

"I think you used a bad analogy." Thor said.

"Probably. But it's a bad idea to piss an elemental off. There's kinda like a demon-ish side, one that takes over when they're mad. Their eyes completely turn into the color of their element and claws come out of their hands. It's hard to describe. But the powers that come with your element are awesome."

"What do you mean?" I think she looked at Pixie, who I think shrugged.

"We can show you, if you'd like us to." I opened my eyes fully.

"Sure."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Since when do we give out demonstrations?" Alex asked, glaring at me. What the hell was her problem?

"Since he's my brother." Violet said simply. "I'll go first." She closed her eyes, concentrating on something.

Suddenly I felt… well, truthfully there were no words to describe it. I felt happy, sad, angry, all those things at the very same time. Weirdly, it felt good.

Violet's eyes opened slowly.

"Ta-dah! There's your Spirit demonstration!"

Pixie looked sort of excited. "My turn!" She put her hands on the ground.

Nothing happened for a second. Then, out of nowhere, flowers started coming out of the ground. Red, blue, white, green, black, and purple sprouted out of the ground around her, each about 3 feet high. She leaned back, looking pleased with herself.

"So you can make any color flower you want?" I asked. She nodded.

"And lots of other things. Food's kind of hard because it takes so much energy."

"Yeah, would've saved Alex a lot of trouble if you could." Violet said. Skye and Thor started howling with laughter. I was obviously missing some kind of inside joke. Whatever it was, it had to be hilarious from the look on Alex's face.

"Okay, my turn." Skye's power didn't take as long as long as Gaia's (I got it right…weird) and Violet's did.

A gust of wind came in all of a sudden, making the flowers Gaia had created wave around. A funnel formed over the center of camp, making the flames of the fire whip around wildly.

Suddenly a lightning bolt came down and smashed into the funnel. I looked over at Thor, who had a smug

grin on his face as he watched the funnel being forced down.

"Whatever you guys. Alex, your turn." Violet said.

"Why? Can't you do the Shadow or something?" Violet rolled her eyes.

"No, cuz you've got the weird imagination."

"Fine." she snapped. She flicked her wrist at the fire.

The affect was instantaneous (normal school really paid off didn't it?)

The flames stretched out, forming a black wolf with silver eyes. It looked at me for a second (more of a glare though), then ran for the woods. That wasn't it though.

As if the wolf had set it off, the fire went wild. Like when it had been Skye's turn, it made a funnel, surrounded by shadows. Lightning bolts came off of it, making a wicked cool demonstration.

But as soon as it happened, it ended. The shadows closed in on it, and with a loud bang the fire settled back to normal.

I couldn't say anything for a second. "That was…cool."

Gaia grinned. "Yeah. So did we leave anything out?"

"Think you guys got it all except the soulmate part." Alex grabbed something out of a backpack beside her.

I realized it was a red iPod.

"You should tell him about it Alex," Skye said with a snicker.

"What? Why me? You guys are the ones with soulmates. Remember I'm the freak with the freaks."

"But it'd be funny and no one else is going to tell him so you might as well."

She groaned, "Fine. A soulmate is like your equal, your partner for life, guy/girl of your dreams, whatever. It's basically your girlfriend/boyfriend made just for you, someone who balances you out. Like, Shadow would balance out Fire, Energy balances out Space, that kinda thing. According to Violet and Gaia, you can tell when you've found your soulmate by two things. One, when you kiss them, you can like feel their element inside you--" I cut her off.

"So if someone became you soulmate they'd feel like they had been set on fire?" I asked curiously. She glared at me yet again. She had issues, _serious _issues.

"Yeah. _Anyway _the second thing is that you just feel some kind of pull towards your soulmate, whether you know they're your soulmate or not. But Violet and Skye are soulmates, Gaia and Thor are soulmates, and I'm the odd one who couldn't give a crap about them."

"Not to mention can't describe them worth crap." Skye and Thor both said.

"Sometimes I wonder if you guys are the soulmates, and are using Violet and Gaia as cover-ups."

I cracked a grin, then looked around at everybody.

Alex had a completely evil grin on her face.

Violet and Gaia were trying very hard not to laugh.

Skye and Thor looked ready to kill Alex.

"Should we kill her now or later?" Skye asked. Told ya.

"Now." Thor snarled.

"This should be interesting." Alex jumped up and assumed a fighting stance.

With that, the two of them jumped up and charged at her, running so fast they looked like a blur.

Skye reached her first, slamming her down into the ground. She kicked him hard, and then Thor was on her, and they crashed together with a sound like thunder. Alex flipped, but Thor was fast enough it grab her. They all three stood up, circling each other.

I looked back over at Violet and Gaia. _Normal _people would be worried about their soulmates, and would be trying to stop the fight, even if they were just joking around. But these weren't normal people. The two of them were talking about the pros and cons of Paramore. Gaia was doing the pros and Violet the cons. Whatever. I turned back to the fight.

Alex on Thor's back, her hands covering his eyes, laughing her head off. Skye was laughing as well, his T-shirt covered in mud. Thor slammed her back into a tree, trying to shake her off. This only made the two of them laugh harder.

But something changed.

Alex's laughter--slightly wolfish with a tinge of what could only be identified as fire--stopped suddenly.

Thor stopped trying to knock her off his back, looking over and trying to figure out what was wrong.

She gracefully jumped off of Thor's back, her face alert and her shoulders stiff.

"There's something coming." she said.

Skye closed his eyes and his light blue hair turned a shade darker. Or I had an overactive imagination.

His eyes opened suddenly, looking slightly confused.

"It's some kind of humming sound…" he said, crossing his arms over his chest. I groaned.

"It's Flyboys. They're like robots with guns." Alex threw a dark glare at me (yet _again)_ for some reason.

"Okay guys, hit 'n' scatter!" Violet yelled, "Gaia grab Fang. He probably doesn't need to be in a fight just yet." Pixie danced over to me and, despite my protests, put inside a kinda cave-ish looking thing.

"Shut up and stay here or I'll shove a tree root up your nose and out your stomach." she snapped, then turned and ran back.

All of them were standing around, waiting for the Flyboys to come.

About 15 seconds after I thought that they came…and I watched probably the coolest fight of my life.

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**-scary music in background- Ooooh...**

**Yeah, that was a bad place to end it but I need to ask my friend some important questions. Besides, that was like four pages!! **

**And then there's homework due tomorrow…whoo-hoo…yeah, I've been working on this story enough that it's probably the reason I have a B in math…keep thinking about all these weird scenes…it's driving me insane!! (although it's probably even **_**more **_**insane…)**

**Reviews are love!**


	4. Author's Note

**UUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!**

**To all my faithful reviewers out there reading this story: I'm sorry. I know it's taken me forever to update, but I don't have internet at my house, and I keep getting ssssssooooooooo much friggin homework!**

**But anyway, I also came for another reason.**

**I don't like the fourth chapter I wrote (I think I put it on my iPod lyrics, so you might get to read it), mostly because I feel like I'm slipping on Fang's POV. **

**So you guys have to make a decision. Would you rather have an Alex POV, a Max POV, or a Gaia POV? I'll make a poll so you can vote.**

**Well, that's all for now (unless my iPod has once again proven it's the greatest objects ever.)**

**Love,**

**Daughters of Night (Crazy Insane Freak-Head)**


	5. Music Battle: Fang

**HI! How's it going peoples? I just wanted to say hi, sorry that it's taking forever for me to update, but I'll try to get it done more now.**

**I wanted to thank secretlover101, everyoneisMISunderstood (again) for being really cool and awesome like they are, and VampiresandHorsesforev3r for asking questions and keeping secrets for me…love ya guys! Oh, and for everyone else who is reading this remember to vote for which POV you want next!!**

**Here we go:**

* * *

_**.:PREVIOUSLY:.**_

_**All of them were standing around, waiting for the Flyboys to come.**_

_**About 15 seconds after I thought that they came…and I watched probably the coolest fight of my life.**_

There had to be at least three hundred of them. I didn't know if they were after me or Violet and her family, but I still wondered-even with their powers--how they could take on this many.

"Give us the boy." One said in a robotic voice.

Alex's head cocked to one side, and I realized that the others were out of sight. This must've been the 'hit and scatter' plan. I hoped it worked, even if Alex acted like an asshole sometimes.

"Which guy? There's the one that tried to make out with me last week, the only who kept talking about how awesome Edward Cullen was, the one who kissed my neck in a movie theater and I broke his nose--the list goes on and on."

"Do not play games with me, fire girl. Give us the boy you saved today and we will not harm you."

She frowned. "You mean the Shadowboy. Gee, as much as I would love to, I can't. See, Violet would get pissed, which means Skye gets pissed, which means Thor gets pissed, which means Gaia gets pissed, and I'm pretty sure he's not worth the trouble. So, that would be a no. Failure to understand this would mean that I get to kick your metallic butts from here to the middle of next year."

A snarl came from one of the Flyboys. He lifted his gun and was about to shoot Alex (I guess), but the leader pushed it down. Apparently, these Flyboys got angrier with her around than they did with Max.

Alex snarled back, her hair whipping around her like flames although there wasn't any wind.

A _tsk_ing sound came from the trees.

"Man. Didn't anybody teach them that flameheads have bad tempers?" Violet said.

A laugh came from somewhere beside her. "It's not flameheads you have to worry about. Just really ticked off elementals with anger issues."

Out of nowhere, Skye and Thor appeared, each of them punching a Flyboy in the side.

After that, everything moved so fast that I could hardly see anyone, even with raptor vision.

A flash of red caught my attention. Alex kicked a Flyboy in the stomach, then ripped his head off. She jumped up and whirled around, her foot slamming into another Flyboy that had tried to creep up on her.

"Alex!" Violet yelled, "Wanna play whirl-a-round?" Alex danced off to Violet. Violet picked up her arms and spun around so that Alex legs came crashing into a Flyboy, who knocked some more down. The two of them smacked high fives.

"Elementals and Flyboys of Tennessee." Alex said loudly. "Tonight we have decided to play…ME AGAINST THE WORLD BY SIMPLE PLAN!"

Out of nowhere, a guitar solo came out.

Violet and Alex both started playing air guitars, smashing Flyboys in the faces while doing so. I saw Skye and Thor doing the same thing, and Gaia was playing air drums.

Then the girl guitarists started singing.

**We're not gonna be just a part of their game**

**We're not gonna be just the victims**

**They're taking our dreams and they tear them apart**

'**Till everyone's the same**

Okay, I haven't heard a lot of singers (being on the run and all that), but man, those girls could sing. None of you guys have heard music until you listen to them.

**I got no place to go**

**I got no where to run**

**They love to watch me fall**

**They think they know it all**

**I'm a nightmare**

**A disaster**

**That's what they always say**

**I'm a lost cause, not a hero**

**But I'll make it on my own**

**I'm gonna prove 'em wrong**

**Me against the world**

All of them were laughing their heads off, leaving Flyboy bodies behind them. Alex spun and gave one a roundhouse kick to the head, and Violet punched one in the face.

**We won't let them change how we feel in our hearts**

**We're not gonna let them control us**

**We won't let them shove all their thoughts in our heads**

**And we'll never be like them**

**I got no place to go**

**I got nowhere to run**

**They love to watch me fall**

**They think they know it all**

**I'm a nightmare**

**A disaster**

**That's what they always say**

**I'm a lost cause, not a hero**

**I'm a nightmare**

**A disaster**

**That's what they always say**

**I'm a lost cause, not a hero**

**But I'll make it on my own**

**I'm gonna prove 'em wrong**

**Me against the world**

They started moving faster and faster, becoming a blur again. The song was really cool though.

**Me against the world**

**Now I'm of this waiting**

**So come on and take your shot**

**You can speed all your insults **

**But nothing you say's gonna change us**

**You can sit there and judge me**

**Say what you want to **

**We'll never let you in**

**I'm a nightmare**

**A disaster**

**That's what they always said**

There had to be 200 hundred Flyboys down by this point. Alex, Violet, Skye, Thor, and Gaia looked like they were having a really great time. It was kinda like Rock Band, but while you were fighting robots.

**I'm a lost cause, not a hero**

**But I'll make it on my own**

**Me against the world**

**I'm a nightmare**

**A disaster**

**That's what they always said**

**I'm a lost cause, not a hero**

**But I'll make it on my own**

**I gotta prove 'em wrong**

**They'll never bring us down**

**We'll never fall in line**

**I'll make it on my own**

**Me against the world!**

A huge burst of flame came out from Alex's air guitar, and the remaining Flyboys caught on fire, falling down besides the others.

After the smoke cleared away I saw the guys.

Violet and Gaia were standing back-to-back, both still holding their air instruments. Alex was standing in front of them, grinning across the clearing to Skye and Thor, who were also holding air instruments.

"Well elementals and dead Flyboys, that concludes the Elemental Freaks' performance of Me Against The World…I hope we never see you again, but with our luck, you'll be back." Skye said. He and Thor slapped high fives. Alex snickered.

"Yeah, well, we better get going before some more show up. Come on guys, pack it up."

She ran over and grabbed her bag, then whipped out her wings and jumped into the air. Her wings were black fading to followed after Alex, her wings just like mine. Then Gaia, who had brown fading to green, Skye, light blue with white, and Thor, silver with faint blue tips.

"You coming or what Shadowboy?" Alex yelled over her shoulder. I shook my head at how happy she sounded. I had a feeling fighting never got old for her. Wouldn't surprise me if she was built to be a mass destruction weapon or something.

But whatever it was, I still leapt into the air after them, wondering just what was going to happen next…

* * *

**Ugh. I don't like this chapter. But anyway, so far I've gotten a Max POV and an Alex POV for the next chapter. Come on guys! You need to decide!**

**Peace it out**

**Love-**

**Daughters of Night…**


	6. The Reason Why: Max

**ARGH! I've had like the biggest case of writer's block_ EVER!!!_ **

**Okay, not really, but it was ssooo annoying.**

**BUUUTTT...the credit for this story goes to my writer friend Julie!! If she hadn't talked to me on Yahoo! Messenger (and agreed to help me) this wouldn't be on here! (So all the dramatic parts are Julie's fault.)**

**AND! She's going to be joining me on my account since Laura ditched me...stupid Internet. So yeah...**

**Therefore, Julie and Jenny (I wish my name was Alex...it's such a cool name) present our chapter...**

**HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!**

**Max POV:**

I tried not to cry as I watch the sun rise.

_He's dead._

_And it's all your fault._

Fang.

I just couldn't believe my best friend, my right hand man was dead.

_All your fault._

A soft knock interrupted my thoughts.

"Come in." I said, mentally cursing myself for my cracked voice. Ugh. I _hated_ being weak.

But I couldn't help it. Fang was dead.

Iggy came in, his icy blue eyes showing just a hint of red in them. No surprise there. We'd all cried yesterday.

_Don't think about it, Max; don't cry in front of Iggy--even if he _is_ blind._

"Hey." he said softly, coming up behind me.

I nodded back to him.

"You know." said Iggy

"What?" I snapped, whirling on him.

Iggy was silent, two identical pink blotches covering his cheeks.

I felt bad, but I couldn't stop.

"Fang is dead, Iggy" I said, my voice sounding harsh--even to me. "he isn't coming back!

"It's not like you saw it happen." I continued, still so angry I scared myself. But I somehow managed to calm down.

"It was so awful." My once angry voice was barely above a whisper. "I just wanted someone to kill me too."

I sniffed, too messed up to even be embarrassed.

Iggy put his hand on my back.

"I know what you mean, even if I didn't see it happen." he said quietly

I nodded again, feeling so miserable. I felt like half of me was gone.

Iggy just stood there, rubbing the spot between my wings just like Fang used to.

I don't know how it happened, but finally we just leaned against each other, crying as the sun rose, bringing us another pain filled day.

A few hours later

After I managed to get everything under control, and the rest of the flock woke up, we made a small memorial/grave for Fang in the woods where we were camped at.

But I don't wanna talk about that. It's too painful. Let's just say there was lots of tears falling down…

When we finished with that, I tried to act like everything was okay--but I failed miserably. I kept looking around and expecting to see Fang walk out of the woods like he had that day at Mom's.

He never did.

I felt a small tug on my shirt, and looked down.

Angel's wide blue eyes looked up at me sadly. "We need to go to Dr. Martinez's house." she said, her voice rough with all the emotions she was trying to keep down.

I nodded.

"Come on sweetie," I said as I picked her up and carried her over to Iggy and the others.

"Alright guys." they all looked at me sadly.

"Hey, look, I know we're all sad that Fang…died," I choked out the words, "But we need to move on."

I was about to add more to that (even though I didn't want to), but Nudge spoke up.

"Yeah. Fang wouldn't want us like crying our eyes out and everything. He'd want us to be happy, right? So we can just try our best, you know, and like…" she trailed off.

_Bless you, Nudge_, I thought silently, smiling at her.

"Exactly. So how 'bouts we go see Max's mom and drown in some choco-chip cookie delight and honor Fang's memory!" Gazzy yelled.

"That's the last time you're watching old time war movies." Iggy and I said at the exact same time. We all laughed.

I put Angel down so she could fly, and we took off in the air.

_Good job, Max._ I mentally groaned.

_I _so _don't wanna hear it, Voice. I've had enough drama without you, so lay off._

_If you think you've had drama today, you've seen nothing at all compared to what's coming._

I ignored it.

_Max, you need to listen. In a few months, you'll be facing something you've never seen before. A--_

_Let me guess. It's a weapon of mass destruction that's going to endanger the world, and I have to go beat it up, don't I?_

I swear the Voice sighed. Amazing.

_No, Max. _She _is not a weapon--but could be._

_Well, I'll deal with it later._

The Voice just sighed again.

After landing in a cave, many hours later

The flock stretched out, clearly tired and sore.

I sat down too, but didn't want to sleep. I knew what I'd dream about.

The tension never left my body as I sat there, watching my flock--or what was left of it anyways.

I kept awake for as long as I could, but I was so dang tired.

My eyes closed. _No,_ I thought.

I couldn't sleep--I just couldn't.

Horrible images were already percolating in the back of my mind, but I couldn't stay awake much longer.

_Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a sec. _I thought as my eyes closed even further.

But then I was gone to sub-consciousness.

And into my worst nightmare.

Dream land!

My eyes opened slowly.

A huge whiff of antiseptic told me we were at the School.

A groan came from the other side of me. Turning, I saw Iggy and Nudge both waking up. Angel and the Gasman were beside them…

But Fang wasn't there.

Panicking, I looked all around me, trying to find him.

No Fang.

"Ah! They are awake, no?" a whitecoat said, kicking my foot.

"Well, it I wasn't, I am now." I snapped.

"Maximum Ride." a new voice said.

I snarled.

"Traitor."

Jeb gave me a sad smile. "Max, I need you to listen to me."

"Screw you." **(A/N: My automatic retort for when I can't think of anything to say.)**

He went on like I hadn't said anything. "Do you remember when I said this was all a test?"

"Yeah. I always thought it was a test to control my impulses*****. Like not killing you, or whacking Anne with a machine gun, a tank, or a…a chicken or something."

*** controlling your impulses is an inside joke with me and Julie.**

Again, he ignored me, but I saw his jaw tighten a bit. Score one for Max. Jeb, zip.

"We have a new test for you."

Silence.

"Aren't you supposed to dance around happily or something, Max?" Gazzy asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe. Guess I'm just not feeling the happiness yet."

Jeb's face darkened. "Very well. We'll come back for you in a few minutes." and he stormed out of the room.

"Gee, he didn't seem very happy with us." Nudge said.

"What do you think he's going to make you do, Max?" Angel asked.

"I don't know sweetie. Probably just fight something."

"Where's Fang?" Iggy asked.

"Probably being tested." Gazzy said glumly.

We were all silent.

I didn't want to think of what would happen if he _wasn't_ being tested.

If he was what I had to fight.

Jeb and the others came for us again.

They led us to a dungeon-ish room, and sitting inside of it, chained to the floor (what, he's not special enough to get a cage or something?), was Fang.

My fists clenched.

Nudge and Angel gasped.

Gazzy--who had told Iggy what he was seeing--and Iggy looked ready to kill.

They were all thinking what I thinking.

One us--either me or Fang-- was going to die.

It turned out to be true--but not in the way we expected.

"This is your test, Max, the hardest test you'll have. You need to chose. Either you and Fang live, and the others die, or Fang dies, and the rest of you live."

I was stunned. Truly, seriously, honest to blog stunned. I'd never expected this.

And so far, from my point of view, it _was_ the hardest test.

"I'm going to _freaking murder you_." I snarled, my fists clenching and un-clenching.

He didn't look surprised. "That's not one of your options."

Deep, down inside, I knew what my choice was.

I wish I didn't have to make a choice though.

"The flock. The flock lives." I choked out, giving him my very best death glare.

He nodded. "I'm sorry-"

"NO YOU'RE NOT!!" Nudge screamed at him, tears running down her cheeks, "YOU'RE A SICK, SICK, EVIL…_THING_ WHO ENJOYS TORTURING KIDS!! I HATE YOU!! I HOPE YOU BURN AND DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH, THEN BURN AGAIN AND AGAIN IN HELL!!"

That was probably not the right moment to think of this, but I was so proud of her. And a little mad she'd cussed, but I think it was okay in this scenario.

"_Max? I don't think _he's_ going to let us tell Fang what's going on. Do you want me to?"_ Angel thought to me.

"_Yeah." _I was sorta glad she'd thought of it. And glad that she was managing to keep her emotions in check…unlike me and Nudge. And the boys, who were (like me) ready to kill Jeb.

I glanced over at Angel.

She looked kind of strained, like she was trying to tear down a brick wall with her bare hands.

"_He's blocking me. He's got this weird mind walls up…and I keep getting pushed away by like…shadows."_

I finally lost what small self-control I had.

I punched Jeb square in the face, and when he went down, I hit him some more.

"YOU SON OF A--" someone hit me from behind.

Back to the non-dream land!

My eyes snapped open, tears pouring down my face.

_All your fault, Max._

**That was like...really emotional.  
Wow.  
Hmmm....  
Did you guys like it? Cuz ya need to tell me if you didn't. Or if you have suggestions, questions, etc.**

**And again, you guys need to thank Julie that this thing is even _on _here.**

**Peace it out**

**-Daughters of Night (me and Julie!!)**

**And remember! Red haired people don't always plot world dominance. (Except for (the evil verision of) Alex and Holly.)**


	7. Let The Games Begin: Alex

**Okay, I have a random/somewhat serious question. Can you like, see Fang telling someone 'I love you'? Or is that just one of those alternative universe things? **

**I was just kind of wondering…**

**Whatever. Sorry I haven't been able to update, but (as some as you probably know) I'm being forced to move. Bleck. This is like the fifth or sixth I've moved. Joyness.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fang (sadly), Emmett, Rose, Alice, or Jasper. Heck, I don't even own Sierra. That's Julie's character.**

**Claimer: I do own Alex, Violet, Gaia, Sky, Thor, Shadow, Sammy, Apollo, and Artemis. And my insanely awesome iPod, which is currently playing 'Into the Night' by Satana. Even though it's sung by the lead singer of Nickelback....**

**Anyways, off to the story… **

**Day after dramatic Max POV**

**Alex POV:**

_Thud. Thud. Thud._

All I could hear was my heart thumping in my chest and my feet pounding on the forest floor.

Out of all the things I loved most in this world (which, let me tell you, is a steadily dropping list--did anyone see how bad Robert Pattinson did as Edward in _Twilight_? Ugh.), running was probably my favorite thing. Maybe it was because I was part wolf. Maybe it was because I was a Fire elemental.

The reason didn't matter. The point was running is friggin' awesome.

"_Yo, Alex."_ Violet's voice interrupted my thoughts. "_We're heading out."_

"_Got it."_ I mind-spoke back, making a sharp U-turn.

Mind speaking was difficult for Violet and I, and we had to be somewhat close to each other--at least within a mile. But we were working on it, just like the rest of our powers.

_Man, _I thought, _having a lot of power is a pain in the butt._

A streak of silver caught my eye. I skidded to a halt, crouching down low in case of an attack.

Suddenly a beautiful silver-black female wolf stepped out of the trees in front of me. Liquid gold eyes looked into mine, and, as cliché as it sounds, I thought she was looking into my soul.

Neither of us looked away as the wolf cautiously walked towards me. I slowly lifted my hand, holding it there for a minute as she sniffed it, and finally consented to let me scratch the area behind her ears.

"You're such a beautiful wolf, aren't you girl?" I said, but in a normal tone. I hated it when people used those like, baby voices on animals. Keep it for the kids, guys, keep it for the kids.

"_Alex! Any day now!"_ I wondered if Violet had turned elemental while waiting for me. The sad thing is I wouldn't put it past her.

"Bye." I whispered as I stood up. The wolf disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The woods whizzed past me as I ran as fast as I could, hoping Violet didn't accidentally break something important--like my iPod. As Skye always said, you've gotta get your priorities straight.

"Finally!" Violet, Skye, and Thor all yelled at the same time as I slid into our camp.

Gaia and I just rolled our eyes.

"So where we headed?" Fang asked as he shouldered the pack Gaia had gotten for him.

"Emmett and Rose's place. We need some info, and they're the best place to get it." Thor answered.

"And they live where?"

"Oak Ridge, the Secret City. One of the elemental cities actually. A lot of the elementals at the time helped to make the enriched uranium for the World War II bomb. You might be surprised how the most famous moments in history usually happened with the help of our kind." Gaia said calmly.

I gritted my teeth as I grabbed my bag.

Why were we revealing of this to him? These were _our_ secrets, secrets no one else was supposed to know. And he could easily just turn around, go to the School, and tell _every single one_.

Violet didn't think so. To her, her brother was totally innocent. Naturally that meant Skye back her up, which meant Thor did, which meant Gaia was totally lost because she hated choosing between her friends.

It didn't help when I told them he was turning into a Shadow elemental--in fact it made Gaia switch from Switzerland (or neutral) to Violet's side.

"Come on, Alex. At the very least he'd have to hang around with us for a little while longer. Besides, I don't think Fang would turn into a traitor, and he's not stupid enough to go back to the School willingly." she'd said, sharing some secret glance with Violet.

But she'd made me mad. Had she lost her _mind_? Had nothing that had happened in the past 5 years taught her _anything_?

I'd stopped that thought though. Thinking about the stuff that had happened 5 years ago would only make me madder…and totally disgusted with myself…and it'd make me feel weak.

Ugh.

We took off, having to fly a little slower so Fang could keep up with us. Another reason not to like him…along with the others.

I shivered at that thought. _Just don't think about it, Alex. _

I closed my eyes and let my elemental senses take over to calm myself. I didn't like to think about my past. You wouldn't either, if you'd experienced some of the things I had…one incident in particular. Trust me it's not fun. At all.

It was easy to tell where everybody was. Violet and Fang were flying near each other to the west. Skye, Thor, and Gaia were all talking about some random things, a half a mile east of me.

Something else reached my ears. A flapping sound (like wings) but different from ours--but pretty close to Fang's wing pattern.

_I swear if it's a bunch of Trackers, I'm going to kill someone._

I slammed on the brakes (not literally, but you get the point), and fell straight down towards the forest floor.

After a moment of free-falling, I snapped my wings out and twisted back around towards the sound I'd heard.

Flying well over 200 mph in the air is probably my second favorite thing on the favorite list. Trust me. It's fun.

A few minutes later, I found what I was looking for.

A small figure dropped from the air and into a tree. In my world, this is not a very good thing.

I shifted in the tree I'd landed in over to where I could see what was going on.

Five dirty-looking (not that I should be talking) kids and a Scottie dog were camped out around a fire, three of them roasting hot dogs on sticks, and another one of them just sitting there, staring at nothing.

But that wasn't really had my attention.

My attention was more focused on the fact the little blonde haired dirty looking girl--who was combing something out of the dog's fur--had a pair of wings.

_Just like ours._

Truthfully, I wasn't surprised. The School were I'd come from had _tons_of bird-kid experiments. Black Amber had even more--but they were all elementals.

But these kids weren't elementals. Yet.

According to my internal elemental sixth sense that told me if there were any elementals/possible elementals anywhere within a 2 mile radius of me, each of these kids had enough potential to be elementals--especially the blonde haired, icy blue eyed boy, and the brown/blonde haired girl.

I keep saying elemental a lot.

Anyway.

Suddenly the little blonde haired girl looked up at me.

Nix that. She looked _straight at me._

_Mind reader!_ My mind screamed at me, and I shrank back some. Don't ask me how I knew that.

I _did_ know that I hated mind readers. I mean I _really _hated them.

Blondie (the mind reader) tugged on the brownish haired girl and whispered something, pointing at me.

_Gee, Alex, it might be a good idea to get out of there now._

The brown haired girl said something, and she and the tall blonde boy got up.

_Right _now_, Alex._ I thought.

I jumped from the tree I'd landed into a different one, then jumped down to the floor.

I heard Brownie yell, "Who are you? Come out where I can see you!"

I thought about telling her to shove a bomb up her nose (hee hee--inside joke), but decided not to.

Suddenly Brownie and Icy Boy were right behind me (I'm assuming Icy Boy was blind or something, since one of his hands was holding onto Brownie's sleeve.)

But I gave them my evilest grin, then did one of the stupidest things to do in front of other people--even if they had wings:

I _morphed_.

Yes, for all you people reading this, I'm a shape-shifter. I can change into just about anything I want. But there are slight limits.

1) It has to be a real thing you're shifting in. (So I can't turn into a dragon…that makes me sad.)

2) You have to be able to picture it in your mind--something you've seen before. (So I can't shift into you, unless I've met you.)

3) Like most things, it takes energy. (Not a good idea if you're dying then.)

So anyway, my now wolf form flew (not literally) around the forests.

I didn't want to lead those guys over to the flock (though I wouldn't mind if they took Fang…) so I took a totally different path, just in case they were as fast as me--which isn't likely.

Besides, if they were as paranoid as my family, they'd be going to the _opposite_ direction.

Whatever.

I ran as fast as I could to where I'd last seen the others. I figured they hadn't noticed I was gone yet, and were still heading to Emmett's and Rose's house.

I was concentrating on my thoughts so hard, I never heard the hunters till they were right in front of me.

_HOLY FLAMING LEMONY SNICKETING FUDGEMUFFINS!!_, is what I thought.

Instead, a howl broke from my lips.

The startled hunters jumped about a foot in the air, looked at each other, then started shooting at me.

I whizzed past them, but not before a bullet went into my shoulder. More howling. A steady stream of profanities went through my mind as I changed form.

_The shoulder. It's always the shoulder._

I continued running, although I was cussing under my breath every two seconds.

_Gaia's gonna kill me. _I told myself, looking at the blood streaming through my fingers. It _would_ be smart to stop, and try to bandage my shoulder up, but 1) heard footsteps behind me, and 2) I never made smart decisions when I only had to make them for me.

So, I ran as fast as I could without doing something to my shoulder, which, by the way, is not very fun. The last time I'd had this much fun was when I got hit with a whip (at the School) that left a scar from my forehead to my chin, and went through my eye. These days I covered it up with my powers--people tend to notice and remember a person with a scar like that.

Finally the footsteps faded away, then disappeared all the way. But for me, nothing ever works out. This is why I wasn't surprised when Blondie-the-mind-reader-with-wings appeared in front of me, along with Icy Boy and that other small blonde boy.

"Joy." I sighed.

"Looks like you got hit with something." the small blonde guy looked down nervously at my shoulder, which was still oozing blood since the bullet was still in it. At least I assumed so, because otherwise I would have healed a while ago.

"Really? I thought all this red stuff was ketchup! Thanks for clearing that up for me, pal." My voice dripped sarcasm. Blondie giggled, while the little boy just scowled.

Two thuds sounded from behind me, and I didn't need to turn around to see that Brownie and the other girl had landed. Well sure, why not add more bird kids in the mix!

"Well hello again, pup." Brownie said, walking around to join the others.

I didn't say anything, just wondered what they wanted from me.

"She's hurt…maybe she'll let Iggy fix her up?" Blondie asked.

"Who said I needed help?" I snapped.

"Jeez, she's as stubborn as you, o' fearless leader." Icy Boy said with a smirk.

"Shut it Iggy."

"Look, you're wasting my time. What do you want?" I asked, trying to sound calm, and not like I was fixing to rip their heads off. I doubted it worked. I never was good at hiding the fact that I was mad.

"We want to know who sent you--" Brownie started, but I interrupted her.

"Nobody sent me, dipstick. I was trying to find out what the noise was."

"Uh-huh. So, let me guess. The School? Jeb?"

"Nope. It was the Gummy bear man."

"The Gummy bear man?" the dark haired mocha-colored girl asked.

"Yep. You know, the fat guy with the tube singing 'Oh I'm a gummy bear. Yeah I'm a gummy bear. Oh I'm a yummy tummy funny lucky gummy bear.'"

Mocha and Blondie laughed.

"Yeah, ha-ha, very funny. Who. Sent. You." Brownie snarled.

I just sighed. "Well, the gummy bear man must feel sad that you don't think he sent me. He likes you."

I don't know if Brownie had been having a bad day or something, or if it was just my 'charming personality' (note quotation marks), but she got mad. Really mad.

Because her hand snapped out and grabbed a choker hold on my neck.

And color me crazy, but I just really don't like it when people do that to me.

I used my Fire power to heat up the area around my neck, making her let me go really fast. I kicked her in the stomach, punched Mocha (who came at me after I heated Brownie's hand), dodged a punch from Icy Boy, and then tripped the little blonde boy.

That done, I ran.

But not before that stupid blonde mind reader got in my way.

I tried. I really did.

I dodged to the side, trying not to run her over, but I slipped on some mud and my legs smacked into her, plowing her down into the ground.

I heard her cry out, but by that time I was up and running again. I had to find the flock.

And so here I was again, my feet pounding down on the forest floor and my heart thumping in my chest. But this time I had a bleeding shoulder with a bullet in it.

About thirty minutes later I heard four extremely fast-beating hearts, and one slightly slower. I knew I had to be _really_ close to them, because I can hardly ever hear their hearts unless I'm really concentrating.

And once again I ran into where my family and Fang were temporarily staying…

…and almost ran into Violet's fist.

"What the heck?" I yelled, sliding on a little patch of mud and onto my good shoulder.

"Oh. Sorry. Where've you been?!" she yelled, grabbing me by my bad arm and hauling me up. I winced.

"Jeez, don't get your wings in a twist. And watch the shoulder would ya?"

She just glared at me for a second, then saw the blood. "Do you intentionally get yourself shot in the shoulder, or is it one of those things where your stupidity catches up with you?"

I snickered.

"Alright hold still." Gaia said, coming up behind me as she started doing something to my shoulder.

Gaia was our healer, I guess you could say. It's her 'elemental gift' like me being able to sense elementals/possible elementals. Violet could see…well, I guess you could just say she saw soulmates. When we first met Thor, she kept asking why there was this weird silver/green/brown ribbon connecting him to Gaia. We found out that whoever was linked together, they were soulmates. Ta-da.

We hadn't figured out what Skye's and Thor's were. Maybe it was managing not to kill me at some points in time.

"There you go. Here's your tenth bullet in your right shoulder." Gaiasaid, handing me a bloody bullet. "This means you owe Thor five dollars, Skye."

"You've gotten shot your shoulder ten times?" Fang asked with a laugh. I ignored him. (See? I _can_ control my impulses!)

"Alex, would it kill you to get shot somewhere else?" Skye grumbled as he gave Thor the five dollars.

"Well yeah, if I get shot somewhere like my head or my heart, airhead."

"At least I wouldn't owe Thor anymore money."

"Someday, Skye, someday I'm gonna wring your filthy little neck." I told him with a grin. We'd stolen that line form _Hatari_, one of the coolest John Wayne films--although it was supposed to be Pockets instead of Skye.

He said Pocket's line, like always. "Not today, Bwana, not today!" **(( Oh, Bwana is, like, a respectful term for a guy. ))**

Violet and Gaia just rolled their eyes. They didn't understand why Skye, Thor, and I always fought. I think they don't understand because they're to girly. I'm serious. The mall was their heaven on Earth.

So anyway, Gaia forced me to wait ten minutes before flying, then took another minute to make sure my shoulder had healed.

Elementals heal really fast. Which is a good thing for someone like me, who keeps getting shot in the shoulder.

_Finally_, we left.

I'd already decided not to tell everyone what happened when I'd left. I just told them I heard a noise, went to check it out, and there was nothing there.

Thankfully, they bought it--everyone except Fang. He seemed to know something else had happened down there, but he didn't say anything.

Didn't mean I liked him though.

My shoulder hurt some as I flew, but it wasn't that bad. Anyone who'd been an experiment of the School was used to pain.

Ten minutes later (with me trying not to kill Skye and Thor, who were constantly telling me that I'd been shot in my shoulder for the tenth time and how they would have gotten here so much faster if I wasn't an idiotic pathetic moronic excuse for an elemental, among all the other names and taunts that aren't as stupid) we landed on the trail to Emmett's and Rose's house.

"You guys have _seriously_ got to get some better name-calling ideas. I'm offended that you're not creative enough to _get something new_." I told Skye and Thor as we walked up the hill.

"Which is exactly why we don't get anything new." Skye said with a grin.

"Go shove a bomb up your nose!" I yelled. Violet and Gaia giggled. They were the only ones in on the joke.

"Go play with your Barbie dolls." he responded calmly.

"Go stick your head up your butt, like it usually is."

"Go hang out with your preppy cheerleader friends."

"Go make out with a duck."

"Go make out with a cat."

"Go play Polo with your stupid friends."

"Go work for the Dallas Cowboys cheerleading team."

"Go kiss Thor."

"Go kiss…" he gave me an evil grin. "Fang."

That did it.

My hair went flat black as I went into Shadow mode. I imagined a black Shadow ball dancing on my fingertips, and when I opened my eyes, there it was. With a dark glare at Skye, I threw it at him.

It wouldn't really hurt him. It was the reason I'd changed into Shadow mode. All it really did was smack him in the face since I wasn't close enough to do that.

He rubbed his face, then a sharp breeze smacked _me_ in the face.

I was just about to walk over and kick him in between his legs when two branches reached out and grabbed us.

"Why do you guys always fight? I mean, it won't kill you." Violet said.

"Yes it will." we both snapped.

She and Gaia sighed.

"Well when the two of you apologize, I'll let you down." Gaia told us.

"This is gonna be a long night." Thor said, and he and Fang sat down near Skye.

But for someone like me, I didn't have to wait all day.

I pictured myself back when I was seven, after my scar had healed. I dropped down to the ground, easily landing on feet as I shifted back.

"That's not fair!" Skye yelled, struggling with his branch.

"If you want fair, look it up in a dictionary." I snapped at him, then turned around to Gaia. "Can't we just leave him there?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh forget it. They were never gonna apologize anyway." With a flick of her wrist, he fell down with a _thump_.

I grinned and blew him a kiss when he glared at me.

"Whatever you two. Let's go."

We started up the trail again, with Violet, Gaia, and I asking completely pointless, random, and stupid questions.

"Alright, here's one: What do you think Alex's last words on earth would be?" Violet asked.

"I dunno. Singing the chorus of the Gummy Bear song?" Skye guessed.

"Nothing. She'd be to busy punching the crap out of someone." Thor said.

"Yelling 'Die you effing brain-sucking zombies?" Gaia said.

I snickered. "For the ten billionth time, Gaia, cussing will _not_ kill you."

She stuck her out at me.

"Maybe she's telling her boyfriend how much she _loves_ him." Fang held out his arms, "She loves him _this much_."

We laughed. Sadly, I did too.

"Okay, what do you think her last action on earth would be?" Violet asked.

"Punching the crap outta someone."

"Blowing up something." Gaia sighed.

"Dancing to the Gummy Bear song."

"Kissing her boyfriend that she loves this much." Fang held out his arms again.

"Jeez, I didn't know you were such a mushy guy." I said.

He rolled his eyes. "Nah. It's just funny thinking that."

"Yeah, cause you wish it was you."

"In your dreams."

"More like my nightmares."

"See? You do dream about me."

I was just about to make an awesome retort for that when Gaia's mouth dropped open. "Holy crap, I forgot how big it was."

I looked at where she was looking.

It was _huge_.

A beautiful grey house sat at the edge of the trail we were on. A brown strip went through the middle, sticking out some with floor-to-ceiling windows. There was a huge garage too, and I knew it held a big silver Jeep Cherokee and a flaming red Ferrari in it, along with a few other cars. The roof was kind of funky-looking to me, but it kinda made the house look cooler. **((It's the Cullen's house in Twilight, but I put a picture on the bottom of my profile))**

Over to the side was a garden with flowers and plants every color under the sun--Gaia probably knew the names to the plants and stuff. There were also a few fountains as well, most of them featuring elementals.

And there, sitting on a bench flipping through a magazine, was Rosalie.

"Hey, lover !" I yelled, using our traditional greeting.

She looked up. "Flame head!" she yelled, getting up and walking over to us.

Rose was one of those s who turned heads and made all the guys drool when she walked by. She was around eighteen, looked about twenty, and had long, wavy gold hair with a few pink streaks in it. She had pale blue eyes and was wearing a black off-the-shoulder top, jean capris, and high heels. Her element was Love (haha), and she was married to Emmett (her soulmate), who was an Air elemental. **((Outfit on bottom of profile))**

"Hey guys. Long time no see." she said, giving us hugs. She stopped and looked at Fang, then at me.

I knew what she was thinking. "Oh, no, no, no, no. Only reason Shadowboy's with us is because he's Violet's brother. Don't be gettin' any ideas in your head."

"Why do you keep calling me Shadowboy, anyway?" Fang asked.

I ignored him.

"Uh-huh." Rose said with a slightly evil grin. "I--" Gaia ran forward and covered her mouth, then whispered something too soft for me to hear. Rose nodded, ad Gaia backed away.

"Okay. Just so we understand each other." she said.

That's when I first got suspicious, especially when I remembered the secret glance Violet and Gaia had given each other when I told them Fang was turning into a Shadow elemental.

Whatever evil scheme they were planning, I knew I needed to find out.

"Alright, I assume you're here to mark out a few locations and find a new place, correct?" Rose asked.

"Yep."

"Let's get crackin' then."

As we walked into the house, I heard Fang said to Violet, "What are we doing, buying real estate?"

"Nope. We're looking for a couple of mutants."

"Oh."

I rolled my eyes just as a huge football slammed into my side.

"EMMETT!" I screamed angrily, picking it up and throwing it as hard as I could at him.

He chuckled and used his Air power to make it reverse and come back at me, but I used my Fire to burn it to a crisp.

"Hey, I liked that football." he complained.

"Then stop throwing one at me every time I walk through a door!"

"Why? It's fun."

"So?"

"So?"

"So shut the hell up, airhead."

"Make me, flame head."

"I will."

"It's on then."

"You better bet it is."

"Not until after we've marked the Schools off." Rose told us.

"Aw, come on!" we both complained.

"Please Rose?" Violet and Gaia begged. "It's so funny to watch Emmett lose."

"Hey!" Emmett looked totally offended and glared at the two of them.

"Well it is!" Skye said.

"I don't lose _that_ much."

"Do too." said Thor.

"_Not until after._" Rose crossed her arms over her chest and glared us down.

"Fine." we all grumbled.

"Good." she said. "Come on, we've already mark off a few on our own."

Skye, Thor, Emmett, and I raced up the huge steps, me against the guys. Emmett grabbed me around the waist just as Skye and Thor crossed the threshold into the MS-room (as we called it.)

"Stupid freaking fat-headed fu--"

Gaia coughed.

"--dging Air elemental." I grumbled, trying to slip out of his grip. He chuckled and held on tighter.

Small, cracked memories of the School slipped into my mind and I shoved a bit harder, my breath coming just a bit faster.

Emmett knew what that meant, and quickly let go of me. "Sorry, Alex."

I sighed, wishing I had more control on my emotions. "Not your fault."

"Alright you two." Rose looked at me. I forced a smile.

Everyone gathered around a big table with a map of the U.S. on it.

There were tons of red, purple, and blue pins on it. Red stood for the Schools we hadn't checked out yet. Blue were Schools that had been destroyed--by us or someone else--and purple were the ones we had checked out.

"Okay, so we looked at these three here." I said, pointing to three Schools in the East Tennessee area. Skye put purple pins in them. **((I have no idea how many Schools there are, so bare with me.))**

Emmett nodded. "Alice and Jasper got two others, way over here." He pointed to two in Oregon. "We've heard rumors of Shadow" I tensed at the name and dug my nails into the table. "over here in Arizona. That's most likely where Sammy" I tensed up some more. "is since Shadow's there. He usually drags her around with him, right?"

I gave him a tight nod.

His face paled slightly, "Oh, hey, Al--"

"I'm fine. What about Apollo and Artemis?"

"Nothing yet. Last we heard, they were somewhere down in the Alabama region. Not sure where, maybe Florence."

Violet sighed. "Didn't we check that out though? Neither of them was there, or Sammy for that matter."

"Well, Sierra came by and said there was a new School." Rose muttered, looking over the map.

"I don't trust Sierra." I glared down at Alabama. "She smiles way too much."

"You have trust issues with everybody."

"Gee, I wonder why?"

"Because you're a hopelessly paranoid maniac that likes to blow things up and had a terrible childhood, which is _why_ you're a hopelessly paranoid maniac that likes to blow things up?"

"Something like that. I'd add insane or crazy…maybe random."

"Good point. But I think you would have been those things anyway, even _without_ the whole--"

Violet cleared her throat and an awkward silence fell.

"Besides, never trust a bunny." I finally said.

"Sierra's not a bunny." Rose informed me, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but she's a stereotype Love elemental, a Barbie doll."

"And this automatically makes her untrustworthy?"

"Well, not exactly, but it makes you suspicious. The fact that she smiles too much gives her evilness away--and she wears too much of the same color. Especially orange."

"What does orange have to do with anything?" Violet yelled, throwing her hands up in the air.

"The bunny in _Hoodwinked _was orange and he turned _evil_."

"He was _pink_!"

"Oh…well, she still wears too much of the same color."

"She's lost it." everyone said at the same time.

"Next thing you know, she'll be drawing directions on eggs," I mumbled as we walked downstairs. "and stealing dessert recipes. And telling everyone named Keith they need to change their name to Boris."

"You guys staying the night?" Rose asked.

"Don't we always?" Violet said with a laugh.

"Cool, I'll call in pizza while Alex and Emmett have their battle."

"Can we have carrot crumpets, like the ones Red gave the evil bunny?" I asked slyly.

They just rolled their eyes.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Alright, Alex, you ready?" Emmett asked.

I plopped down on the couch and grabbed the Wii wheel on the table. I quickly picked Dry Bones and the Mini Beast kart, then said, "Bring it, you fudgesucker."

He clicked the Star Cup.

Emmett (who was Donkey Kong) and I raced along Daisy Circuit, turning on the winding roads.

Several explosions, red cubes, shells, stars, bombs, and bannana peels later, I was in first place, Emmett right behind me.

But yeah, after the battle kart thingy was fought, Emmet and I had tied. Since my name started with an A, I got first place. Hee hee hee hee.

"Dude!" Emmett yelled. "What if her name wasn't Alex?! Huh?! I TOTALLY creamed her dudes! Man, you suck eggs stupid programmers guys!!"

I laughed as Rose rolled her eyes.

"Aw, ashamed you lost to a _girl_?" I asked him.

He glared at me.

"You'd think he'd get used to it, after all the times you've beaten him." Violet said. "But maybe he's learning. He usually screams more."

Emmett glared at her.

The doorbell rang, and Rose walked off to answer it.

"Alright, everyone in the kitchen!" she yelled back to us, holding fourteen boxes of pizza.

"Who got the sausage and mushroom?" Gaia asked, holding two boxes up.

"Hand over my pizza before I kill you," I told her as my stomach growled. She smiled and gave it to me.

Everyone else got their pizza and started eating, scarfing down the pizzas like fat kids in a cake shop. **(XD) **So let's just skip to the part where we had stopped eating like fat kids in a cake shop, okay?

"Ughh," Violet said as she pushed her pizza box away. "If I eat anymore, I'm going to...what did that girl at that one school always say? 'Spontaneously combust'?"

"Yeah. But she put in more along the lines of 'If you guys don't stop bursting out into song, you'll spontaneously combust because your singing while wearing orange.' Er something like that." I told her.

"Okay, I'll show you to your rooms." Rose yawned.

"Yeah, sure...cheeseee." Thor mumbled.

I managed to get up, then Skye and I grabbed Thor and dragged him up the stairs to where Rose was leading us, and threw him unceremoniously onto the bed.

"G'night." I yelled at everyone, stumbling into the room Rose always let me use.

The huge black and gold bed was extremely soft and cinnamon-smelling when I laid down on it. I kicked off my shoes and my crazy dream memories washed over me.

_________________________________

**I DID IT!!**

**OHMYFUDGINiPODSOFDOOM I DID IT!!**

**Wait...maybe this is all in Alex's head, and she's imagining me doing this....**

**And therefore, this means you have the power to go inside people's dreams...**

**I wish I had my nachos.**

**Okay, until next chapter, which shall be Alex POV ( I have big plans for my next chapter..now if I could just write it down on something...)**

**PEACE, MY AWESOME REVIEWER DUDES!!!**

**--Alex/Jenny, leader of the Nachos Lovers and the Music Flamers.**

**XD**


	8. Music and Trackers: Alex & Fang

**Mkay, before we start (don't kill me!!) a quick note:**

**This is Alex**

_**This is Alex and Violet**_

**But that comes in later.**

* * *

"_Don't you like games, Alex?" Shadow asked._

"_Don't do this Shadow. Please, don't." I whispered, trying to hold back my tears._

_He smiled, leaning in close to me and forcing my lips against his._

**(The spaces/stars mean that it's a different flashback thingy…)**

"_She's weak."_

"_She's excellent at any form of combat, a natural assassin. _If_ she would follow orders."_

"_She's still weak. She shows mercy to some targets."_

"_Then we'll have to beat it out of her, won't we?"_

*** * ***

"_They don't care about you, Alex. You're just another pawn in their game, but because of that stupid _boy_, you'll let yourself be used? Aren't you gonna fight?"_

_I looked up at her. "There's hardly anything to fight _for_."_

_She snorted. "I guess you _are_ as weak as they think."_

*** * ***

"_Four seconds slower, freak." the Tracker turned to a guy standing behind him. "Kill the little girl."_

"_NO!" I screamed._

* * *

I bolted upright, clutching the sheets underneath me, my chest heaving.

When I remembered I was in Rose's house, I sighed. You'd think after five years of having the same nightmares over and over (although they were sometimes much longer and more detailed) you'd finally realize one day that you'd seen this a billion times, that there was nothing to be afraid of.

But no. If anything, it had gotten worse since me, Violet, and Skye had rescued Fang from that School.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked at the clock. It was four o' clock in the morning. Another sigh. I always seemed to wake up around this time.

There were several _pop_s as I jumped out of bed and opened the window.

It was still night--my favorite time. I carefully climbed out the window, then spread my huge wings and flew to the roof.

When I finally reached the top, I saw Violet sitting there, almost as if she was waiting on me. I plopped down beside her.

"Bad dreams?" she asked.

I didn't answer.

"Thought so."

We were both silent for a bit, just sitting and watching the stars.

"You found her yet?" I asked her after a while.

She shook her head. "Nope. I thought I found the bow, but then I lost it."

"Have you found the circlet?"

"Uh-uh."

"Head?"

"Zip."

"Not even the uniform?" I asked desperately.

"Have you ever liked preppy cheerleaders?"

Que eye rolling.

For you people out there reading this, wondering what the fudge we're talking about, it's a Percy Jackson thing. For those of you sad, sad, little people who have not _read _the awesomeness of Percy Jackson (or you've read it and _still_ don't know what we're talking about) we're looking for the constellation the Huntress.

Technically speaking, it's probably not there. But Violet and I _loved_ Zoë Nightshade. Violet nearly cried when **(spoiler alert) **Zoë died, and the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, sent her soul--I think it was her soul but I'm not sure-- into the sky so she could live forever in the stars, to let the world honor her. Anyways, that's how the Huntress was born. And so every night when we could, we simply looked for her, somewhere up in the stars.

Yeah. That's how obsessed we were.

Oh well. You had to have _some_ fun when your life was complete chaos.

Chaos. Such a weird word…like 'ish'. You know, black_ish_, silver_ish_. Sounds like a six year old saying 'fish' without front teeth…

Sorry. I swear I have ADHD or ADD or whatever it's called. Hee hee, that spells add…I have add.

…

My life was _so_ sad. Now I was crackin' horrible 'jokes' about ADD. Very pathetic.

We continued to sit there until the sun began to creep up over the tree tops, casting a red/pink glow in the sky.

"ALEX! VIOLET! Breakfast in ten!" Rose yelled from down below us. She knew we liked to leave really early in the morning.

"COMING" I yelled back at her as Violet slid down the huge pole beside the roof. When she landed, I slid down as well.

As soon as we hit the ground, we were running, trying to beat the other one to the kitchen. I swear Rose was the best cook in the world.

"Aha!" I yelled, easily (and not at all gracefully) sliding into the kitchen--and knocking over and falling on Fang in the process.

"Jeez, guys, can't you get a room first?" Thor asked.

I glared at him.

I would have done more, but it hadn't been that long since I last beat him up, and Gaia would most likely kill me.

Fang, however, had no such limitations. After getting up and brushing off his shirt, he walked over to Thor and kicked him where the sun sure as hell don't shine.

Although I didn't like Fang, it made me smile.

"Alright, come eat--why are you on the floor, Thor?" Rose asked. (Hee hee, that rhymes!!)

He just groaned.

"Hey, Rose, do you have any of those--Thor!" Gaia dropped down beside him. "What's wrong?"

Another groan.

"Alex! What did you do this time?!"

My mouth fell open. "Me! How do you know it's my fault?!"

She gave me a death glare, making her cute pixie face turn into an evil, angry demon. "One, you're standing there. Two, you're breathing. Three, you're breathing _and_ standing there."

"It wasn't me! It was Fang--"

"Fang's not even in here!"

"Come on, he's right--" I stared, flabbergasted, at the place where Fang had just been.

For you people out there, reading this, you should be glad you've never, ever, ever, _ever_ been on the receiving end of Gaia's anger. The little fights between me, Skye, and Thor, she has no problem with. It's two against one, you know? But when she thinks I've hurt Thor by myself, she gets mad. _Really_ mad.

About 30 minutes later, after a serious chewing out, with Thor faking being hurt but actually laughing his head off, several torturous methods that I cannot describe here, and a punch to the gut later (from the evil pixie herself), the three of us managed to get in the kitchen and grab some breakfast.

Deciding that I'd most likely ruined the normal, cheerful pixie kid, I sat as far away from her and Thor as humanly possible. Sadly, this required sitting by Skye, Emmett, and Fang.

"Thanks for explaining what happened, pal." I said, kicking Fang under the table.

"You're welcome. And I'm not your pal."

"What'd you do?" Emmett asked.

After explaining what happened, and me being forced to explaining what method of talk-torture Gaia had used this time, Skye and Emmett had been caught up to speed, and had given Fang high fives for getting me in trouble and kicking Thor.

I didn't know how I ever put up with them.

"So where we headed, Alex?" Violet called from across the table. I looked over at Rose for an answer.

"I figured you guys should probably head over to Alabama--I know you don't like Sierra, Alex, but just check it out. We got you the regular stuff, and I updated one of the maps for you.

"The next best bet, if you don't find anything there, is to head over to Arizona. There's a few--are you alright Fang?"

I thought this was a reasonable question to ask, seeing as how Fang had just swallowed pretty much his entire sausage at hearing that we were going to Arizona later, and was now choking to death. He somehow got the King Kong sized sausage down.

"Fine."

"What's so interesting to _you_ in Arizona?" I asked, curious.

"Nothing that has anything to do with _you_." he snapped. Que another rolling of the eyes as Rose continued.

"Like I was saying, there's a few unchecked Schools over that way, ones that Alice and Jasper say specialize in elemental mutants."

Violet and Gaia nodded.

"This is, of course, assuming we make it out alive from Sierra's evil trap." I told the two of them.

"I don't get why you don't like Sierra, aside from her being a stereotyped Love elemental." Gaia muttered.

"What lesson is it? Like 3, or something?"

"What the heck are you talking about?"

"NCIS."

Dead silence.

" 'Never question the gut'."

"Ooh…"

"You people make me sad."

"Alright, now that we've proved Alex is addicted to NCIS, and never watching her show is clearly the most agonizing torture there is besides being turned into a prepped up cheerleader who's heading to prom, I think it's time to go." Skye said.

Rose smiled sadly.

See, the thing about Rose is that she loves kids. But due to several experiments at the School, she can't have any. When she found that out, we…well, we literally fell into her life (Gaia almost landed on her).

So, after a few months, she'd kinda adopted us, and had offered to let us live here more than a few times. But she knew the answer would be no. We might consider it after we found Sammy and Artemis and Apollo. Until then, it'd be a no every time.

"Grab your gear," I told them, and they all ran upstairs to get their packs.

I looked over at Rose.

"Thanks lover girl."

She smiled again, but this time it wasn't sad. "Anytime flame-head."

*** * ***

**Fang POV:**

"I hate my name. Stupid girls just _had_ to name me Skye. I mean, yeah, we our names usually have something to do with our elements, but still. Skye sounds like a girl name. I never got why they didn't take Thor's suggestion on calling me Skylar."

I looked at Skye. "Dude! Why are you talking so much? It's not normal for a guy."

He rolled his eyes. "I forgot to charge my iPod last night." He held out a light blue iPod nano (one of the new, super-thin ones).

"Give here. I'll charge it real fast if you'll up about the whole name thing." Thor said. Skye gave it to him, and Thor made little lightning bolts run over it for a second, then gave it back.

"There. Now please shut up."

Skye (who shall henceforth be called Skylar so I can avoid the name issue again) put on a pair of light blue headphones, and shut up.

This is one of the those moments when somebody comes in and starts singing 'Hallelujah'.

Anyways.

We were walking in some town named Florence, in Alabama or whatever, fixing to get something from Hardee's (which, apparently, was the only place these guys would eat if they could…something to do with mushroom swiss burgers…).

Which is how we got into this whole…thing, trap, weird thingymobobber, whatever you wanna call it, which went something like this:

"It's a trap." Violet said, her hands twitching.

"Very trap-ish." Alex nodded, her voice far away.

"So we shouldn't go in there, right?"

"Correct."

"I mean, traps are bad."

"Very bad."

"Traps usually end up with us in cages and most likely in pain."

"Usually." Alex's voice sounded almost like she was day dreaming now.

"So we shouldn't go in there." Violet seemed to be convincing herself more than Alex.

"Nope. Shouldn't go in there." Gaia muttered.

"Really stupid to fall for something like this." Thor said, but he was twitching as bad as Violet was.

"We should go now." Skylar said. I almost thought he was the only sane one here. Then I looked at him. His face was looking up in awe at the building in front of us.

"I'm declaring you all _insane._" I told them. "You're all idiots if you're actually going to do this."

"Insane idiots." Alex said dreamily. "Sounds like us."

"Alright then." Violet stopped twitching and looked at all of us. "Let's go."

For a second I thought she had come to her senses and we would finally get out of there when she, Alex, and Gaia quickly walked across the road to the building, Skylar and Thor behind them.

I sighed. I couldn't really believe we were all doing this. We were walking _straight into a trap._

But I knew there was no fighting it.

The were hooked as soon as the saw that stupid sign for Battle of the Bands.

And I thought Max was stubborn.

*** * ***

"Genius. How are you gonna get equipment?" I asked.

Gaia looked back at me, frowning. "To quote Darth Vader, I find your lack of faith disturbing. You've never seen what Fire elementals can do, so just shut up."

"I have too seen what she does!" I snapped back. "She'll probably blow the dude's head off with fire. How does that help?"

"That's completely stereotyped of you. Fire elementals do not just destroy. And besides, they _do _have other powers."

"Probably the ability to shoot fire out their eyes."

"Impossible. It only comes out the hand."

"Until she farts."

I thought I saw a faint smile, but she didn't say anything.

Thankfully Alex wasn't nearby, otherwise she probably would have killed me for that little comment. She was off with the manager dude somewhere over…

Then I saw her. She and the manager guy were over near the stage.

I don't know what Alex said, but the guy started tripping all over himself as he lead her over to a room with a big label over it that said 'Equipment'.

My eyes narrowed slightly. There was no way it should've been that easy…

Gaia gave me a smug 'I-told-you-so-but-you-didn't-believe-me-so-HAHA' look. I ignored her.

Alex cart-wheeled back to us, looking pleased with herself. "Got it all set up. Dean--the manager--even has the same brands we used back in New York."

"Awesome!" Skylar, Thor, and Alex all exchanged high fives with each other.

"Game plan?" Violet asked.

" 'Misery Business' " Gaia said immediately.

Alex nodded. "That's what I was thinking too. We've got plenty of time to check on the instruments since we're the last performance."

"What about the guys?" Violet asked.

"You should probably do guitar on this one, Skye. Thor can't get it down."

"Excuse me if I happen to like the piano better." Thor snapped.

That made me laugh. "You actually like _piano_ over the _guitar_? The only thing that beats the guitar is the drums. Every idiot knows that."

Gaia smiled. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."

I raised an eyebrow. "You do drums?"

"Course I do! There's no _way_ I'm touching the guitars. Why, did you think Alex did the drums?"

"Well, she does love to beat stuff up…" I muttered.

"Oh hahaha. Absolutely HILarious." Alex said with a roll of her eyes. "You guys crack me up."

"Did you just say you were on crack?" Skylar asked, startled.

Alex just sighed. "Sometimes--actually most of the time--I wonder why I put up with you guys."

"Because you love us to death, and we're your favorite people in the world." Violet told her as she pulled open the door to the equipment room.

"Don't make me laugh." was her response, but her smile kind of told what she was really thinking. "M'kay, so it's the usual setup. Thor, you and Shady boy can hang backstage till we're done."

Everyone nodded but me, since I didn't see why I needed to nod.

Alex grinned. "Let's do this."

*** * ***

Gaia, Violet, Skylar, and Alex were all set up on the stage, instruments/and microphones all set up and ready to go as soon as the last song finished.

I looked over at Thor. "Either you guys have done this before, or you're seriously fast."

He grinned. "Being an elemental implies being fast. But we've done this once or twice."

The announce dude came on just then. "Alright guys, give it up for our last minute entry, the Elemental Freaks singing--" Whatever he said was lost when the crowd outside broke out in huge roar that hurt my ears.

"Are you sure it was only 'once or twice'?" I asked after the noise had settled down some.

"Once or twice on several occasions. Does that sound better?"

I rolled my eyes.

When the crowd calmed down enough for people to hear the announcer again, the guy continued. "As I was saying the Elemental Freaks will be playing 'Misery Business' by Paramore."

More cheering.

Then Violet started the song.

I had no idea how anyone on the run could learn to play the guitar so well. She started out with a solo for a few seconds, then Skylar and Gaia joined in.

And Alex sang:

**I'm in the business of misery**

_**Let's take it from the top**_

**She's got a body like an hour glass**

_**It's tickin' like a clock**_

**It's a matter of time before we all run out**

**When I thought he was mine,**

_**She caught him by the mouth**_

**I waited eight long months**

**She finally set him free**

**I told him I couldn't lie:**

**He was the only one for me**

**Two weeks away it caught on fire**

**She's got it all for me**

_**But I wear the biggest smile**_

Okay, so I'd heard them singing a day or two ago. But still, it was nothing compared to this.

Somehow, every little piece of the song flowed together with them. Skylar and Gaia were awesome, Violet's voice was perfectly in sync with Alex's, making an already super cool song (Nudge forced me to listen to it once) even better.

_**Whoa, I never meant to brag**_

_**But I got him where I want him now**_

_**Whoa, it was never my intention to brag**_

_**Just to steal him all the way from you now**_

**But God does it feel so good**

**Cause I got him where I want him now**

_**And if you could then you know you would**_

_**Cause God it just feels so**_

_**It just feels so good**_

**Second chances they don't ever matter**

**People never change**

**Once a whore **

**You're nothing more**

**I'm sorry that'll never change**

**And about forgiveness**

**We're both supposed to have exchanged**

**I'm sorry honey but I passed it up**

**Now look this way!**

**There's a million other girls who do it just like you**

**Looking as innocent as possible to get to who**

**They want and what they want**

**It's easy if you do it right!**

**Well, I refused, I refused, I refused**

_**Whoa, I never meant to brag**_

_**But I got him where I want him now**_

_**Whoa, it was never my intention to brag**_

_**Just to steal him all the way from you now**_

**But God does it feel so good**

**Cause I got him where I want him now**

_**And if you could then you know you would**_

_**Cause God it just feels so**_

_**It just feels so good**_

**I watched his wildest dreams come true**

**Not one of them involving you**

**Just watch my wildest dreams come true**

**Not one of them involving**

_**Whoa, I never meant to brag**_

_**But I got him where I want him now**_

_**Whoa, I never meant to brag**_

_**But I got him where I want him now**_

_**Whoa, it was never my intention to brag**_

_**Just to steal him all the way from you now**_

**But God does it feel so good**

**Cause I got him where I want him now**

_**And if you could then you know you would**_

_**Cause God it just feels so**_

_**It just feels so good**_

So the crowd went wild again and everyone was grinning and then Skylar, Gaia, Violet, and the evil demon (Alex) got off stage.

That's when I noticed them.

They were seven of them, guys that looked like they could make pro-wrestlers call for their moms. Each of them were standing unnaturally still, looking (or at least, it seemed to me) mainly at Alex.

I nudged Thor and nodded my head at them.

All the color drained out of his face and he grabbed Alex.

"Dude! Chillax, what are you--" she started to say, but he cut her off.

"Shut up!! They're here, come on, we've gotta go!"

Then the most amazing thing happened--she shut up and listened to him.

Yeah. It was that serious, apparently.

"Come on!" Violet hissed, giving Alex a little push.

Again, she shut up and listened.

I'm pretty sure the world's about to end.

I watch the guys as we headed towards the door. They split up, three heading towards us, the other five heading to various exits that I couldn't see from where I was standing.

I quickly caught up with Gaia. "Who are those guys?"

She gave me a look that made her seem like a some 80 year old person. I knew that look. I'd seen it on Max's face sometimes when she was really worn out from all the stress that she somehow managed. "They're Trackers, Fang." she said softly. "Agents of the School we--as in Alex, Violet, and I--escaped from. They're…" she shook her head.

"Why are we running though? I mean, can't you guys use your super-duper elemental powers or whatever?"

"Our powers take energy from us, Fang. If we over use our powers, we could die. And dying isn't really that fun, you know? Besides, these guys have strong resistance powers."

"Move it!" Alex snapped, pushing us out the door and slamming it closed.

We only survived five blocks before they found us. And there were more this time.

Nobody--not even Alex and Violet--heard them until they were almost on top of us.

I don't really remember what happened after that.

I saw Violet kick one in the stomach, just as Skylar chopped him in the throat.

It didn't affect him in the least.

And that's when I blacked out.

Again.

* * *

**I'm really super sorry it took this long to post this.**

**But I have Internet at my house know, and I see Julie and my new writer friend Holly everyday, so hopefully this won't ever happen again.**

**Reviews are love...or you can just scream at me if ya want.**


	9. IGNORE!

IGNORE THIS!! THIS IS A TEST!! IGNOREIGNORE!!!

Hey! This is an experiment! I (Julie) Wanted to see if I could replace chapters without deleting the comments.

Ignore.

Please.

IIIIIGGGGGNNOOOORREEE!

Stalk.

Stalk...

Jenny...

Andrew...

Reed.....

Blue....

Dyna

BYE!!


	10. Warrior Elementals: Alex

**Ugh.**

**Julie's impossible.**

**Okay, so about the Fax thing. Some of you want, some of you don't.**

**I asked Julie what she thought.**

**Julie went from Flex, to Fax, Miggy, to Flex and Fax,and all this other stuff.**

**So, and I'm sorry Halo, but I thought Julie really meant it when she said we shouldn't do Fax, we're going to have just the tiniest bit of Flex that's gonna end pretty much as soon as it starts, and the rest shall be Fax when the flock comes back.**

**I'M SO SORRY HALO!!!!**

**Alex POV:**

I hate pink.

I hate preps.

I hate Robert Pattison.

I hate Edward Cullen.

I hate people who smile a lot.

I hate make-up.

I hate dresses.

I hate Fang.

I hate Shadow.

All of this is insignificant, however, to how much I hate Trackers and the School.

If I ever build or get my hands on a super nuclear bomb, I'm dropping it on the very place I'm sitting right now. And then building another one and dropping it here, and after several more I'm going to sprinkle salt all over it so nothing else will ever grow here, then dancing on the ashes.

After I got out, of course.

That was the big problem: Getting out of here.

A long time ago, when it had just been me, this would have been as easy as flying. But then Violet came along, then Gaia, then Thor and Skye. And now Fang.

Fang would be the biggest problem to get out. He wasn't an elemental, didn't have our strength. The Trackers would go after him first, if we ran.

So we needed a distraction.

Something big enough for Violet to grab him and slip out, but small enough that we wouldn't have every damn Tracker in the School after us.

………………………………

Well, at least it was a challenge.

But one thing I was dead set on: One of us--Violet, Skye, Gaia, Thor, hell, even Fang--was going to get out.

And beat up Sierra.

Because I'd seen her I here.

She'd grinned and waved as she passed me, flipping her orange and pink hair over her shoulder, acting like a prep-headed Prom queen on drugs.

It would be fun, watching her prefect little face get all bloodied up.

My entire body shock with fury, and I wished she had come just a few steps closer to my cage so that could've at least tripped her. Or hit her in the face. Or…well, you get the idea.

Violet slowly stirred beside me.

"Alex?" she asked groggily.

I grunted, knowing that if I opened my mouth I would've started saying 'told ya so!' and this was just not the time for such matters. Yet.

"Where's Fang?"

I looked around carefully.

Gaia and Thor were in the two cages across from us, with Skye on the other side of me.

Fang, however, was nowhere to be found.

"I dunno," I told her truthfully.

Panic and fear flashed in her eyes, but she got her expression under control.

I was about to say something, anything to make her feel better, but a voice interrupted me.

"Ah, our favorite mutant elementals have come back home."

My head whipped around to see a tall boy standing a little to the left of my cage, wearing black track pants and a black T-shirt, his skin as white as snow.

Although I couldn't see his face from where I was, I knew what he would look like. His hair would be such a dark black that you could see blue/purple streaks where the light hit it, just like his eyes. He'd have a scar that pulled down the side of his left eye, and he'd be wearing a huge, evil grin that should his extremely white teeth.

I knew this because he used to be my very best friend.

Shadow.

God, I hated his guts.

"It's been a long time, Allie," he said, as if we were still six years old and best friends. "How's your scar?"

I gave him my best glare. "My name's not Allie."

"I know. Does it still annoy you when people call you that?"

"No one calls me Allie but dickheads like you."

He chuckled. "Same old Alex."

"Go to hell."

His eyes narrowed and his mouth opened, but one of the whitecoats called him over.

I grinned. "I forgot you're the whitecoats lap dog now. How's that working out for you? Always having to do everything they say, coming at their beck and call. Do they still give you treats when you've been a good boy?"

Shadow's arm shot out and grabbed my throat. "I wouldn't talk if I where you, Ride. It'd be a shame to break your pretty neck."

My grin widened. "Try it. Let's see if you've got the guts."

We stared at each other for several seconds. Then he flung me back against the wall, muttering, and walked away.

"How'd you know he wouldn't have killed you?" Violet asked quietly.

I looked at her, rubbing my now sore throat. "I didn't."

And that, dear friends, is what we call the Truth, something that is few and far between these days.

*** * ***

**Haha. I writing in Alex's point of view.**

**Sorry this took so long--it IS the holidays. But anyways.**

**MERRY CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR/HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!**


	11. Failing Plans: Violet

**This? This is Julie! The stalker girl! Pshaw, not that I...you know, stalk people. I would never do that.**

-grin-

And this? This is Holly! -cackles-

**Well, we're here for two reasons:**

One: We needed to update Alex's or Jenny's or whatever you call her (?) stories because she was having technical difficulties uploading stuff.

**Which is where we come in. The second reason we're here is because I have finally decided that...**

There shall be Flex! All Flexness!

**And Jenny**

Alex.

**Whatever. Alex/Jenny just would not change it.**

Grrr...

**Exactly. So we came in!**

After locking ourselves in the bathroom because Alex found out before we could post this.

**If I had a camera, I'd tape her screaming at us.**

She's very territorial of her stories.

**Extremely.**

Which is another reason we're doing this. We loveth annoying our poor friend.

**Wow. She has quite a vocabulary.**

Yes she does! We've been cursed/cussed out in pig latin, English, Percy Jackson, Tamora Pierce, Mortal Instruments, and Lord of the Rings language.

**Not to mention the elemental language she made up.**

It's so awesome!

**We should update the story, you know that?**

Yes we should. But I like these author's notes. They seem fun.

**Come on Holly. We need to update before Jenny--**

Alex.

**Whatever. We need to update before she breaks down the door.**

Fine. We shall see you at the end.

**PS:** This is the first chapter that I have ever written! (Though admittedly, a lot of it was from Julie...)

* * *

**Violet POV:**

I had to find Fang.

_Fast._

Alex, Gaia, Skye, Thor, and I had a plan. It was a small one, with lots of risks, but it was the only one we had.

So, therefore, I _really_ needed to find Fang.

I sat there as motionless as I could, waiting for the signal from Alex.

I glanced back at her for the ten billionth time, watching her tense face scan the area as she waited for the right moment to put the plan into action.

I hate waiting. Which is why I was nervously drumming my fingers on my lap, switching beats every few seconds.

_Drum, drum, drumdrum, drum, drum..._ Over and over until it was firmly stuck in my brain, then moving onto a new one.

_Come on, come on, come on, I wanna get outta here, I wanna find my brother, _I thought screamed.

And then it happened.

There was a sudden, overwhelming rush of heat and the door to our cages opened.

Alex was out quick as lightning, Skye and Thor right behind her as the three of them started tearing down people and ripping open cage doors for other mutants. Gaia helped the others to there feet, herding them to where they needed to go to get out.

And I was off, running as fast as I could to find Fang. We had a rough idea of where he was, and maybe, just maybe, things would work out for us this once and he'd be there.

_Left, straight ahead, right, right, go down three doors, take the one in the center, run down the hall, fifth door to the right. _I ran the directions over and over in my head, concentrating, making sure I didn't screw this up.

**_Thud!_** I slammed my foot against the door I wanted, and it fell to the ground.

A few seconds as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I looked around.

There were four mutants in here. One of them was a girl as tall as Alex, but so skinny you could see her rib cage. Her breathing was quick and short, but as I watched her pants became less and less until they finally stopped. The same thing with the girl beside her, but she looked like she had been dead for days. The cage across from the girls was very small, with a boy about ten years old inside. He was just as skinny, and pale, with orange hair and grey eyes.

Beside him was Fang.

"Fang!" I hissed, running over to him. "Come on, we've gotta go!"

Slowly, he raised his head. "Violet?"

"No you idiot, I'm Oprah Winnfrey! Get your ass up before I kill you!" With that, I slammed by fist, wrapped with shadows, into the lock. I had to hit it two more times before it fell, and then I started working on the boy's lock.

Fang was out by the time I got Smallie (the boy) out. He looked scared for his life. "Let's go. We don't have much time."

Running along those corridors again, I realized something was wrong.

There were too many Trackers running towards where Alex and the flock were, too many people screaming about a break out with the elementals.

Which could only mean one thing: Our plan had failed.

* * *

**That was horrible.**

It's called an epic fail.

**Sure.**

Review even though we suck?

**Please?**

And if you leave a funny review, Alex won't delete the chapter so she can change the Fax/Flexness.

**Exactly.**

See ya next chapter!

**Which will be much longer!**

**_--Holly And Julie_**


	12. Nevermind

Just screw it. No point in looking at this chapter.

Unless, of course, you're bored out of your mind.

If so, I recommend you go to something else, unless there is another chapter you're attempting to reach.

If you _are_ trying to do this, I apologize for getting to your way. But I didn't feel like deleteing this.

Therefore, you're stuck with it.

I'm having an affair with a unicorn.

-cackles-

--Alex


	13. This Is NOT Awkward: Alex

**Heyyy...meh story is back. Blame the Happy Fairy Bunnies. And evil reviewers.**

* * *

**Alex POV:**

Have you ever been in a situation where you had a plan, launched said plan, plan fails, and you're fighting with your family in what's basically a life-or-death thing?

--crickets chirp in background--

I didn't think so. I thought I'd try it anyways.

Back to the original point.

The plan had failed. The Trackers were streaming in left and right. Something had gone seriously wrong.

I guess that's what you get when someone like me's in charge. It just happens.

The joys of being a runway mutant...at least it's interesting. I mean, really, most kids in the US have to go to school and stuff! They have all this high/middle school drama, they have to worry about grades, how they look, if the teachers are gonna murder them via homework, that kinda thing.

But my family? No, we get to have total badass powers, fly around, and be free.

Oh, and get chased across the country by evil sadistic maniacs with lots of money, power, and bacon.

Minor details. (Aside from the bacon. It owns your _soul_.)

Back to the orginal point _again._

So, you know, there we were, the four crazy elementals with a bunch of half-dead mutants, watching in complete horror as Trackers started filling in around us.

_Aw, hell_, I thought. Why must all plans be ruined? Does the bacon hate me or something? Did I destroy an iPod somewhere along the way? (Don't answer that. That'd be weird if you did.)

There was a brief moment of silence and standing there, gaping, wondering what the hell we poor mutants had done to deserve this, before they lunged at us.

Quick note: If you ever been attacked, you know how it feels. But try being attacked by a least fifty evil sadistic, super strong, elemental-resistant, buff teenage boys that are actually killing machines.

"Dear bacon, the unholy hour is nigh," Gaia muttered.

I had a moment to snicker before someone slammed into me from behind.

In mid-air, I twisted around so I was on top (awkward sentence phrasing…) and we landed on the rough metal floors.

The Tracker punched me in the face, my face whipping around to the side, and rolled over, his horrible breath blowing into my face.

"Dude, get a breath mint," I choked out, punching him back and kicking him where the sun don't shine. That was a mistake. More bad breath clogged my senses, and I head-butted him.

_That _finally got him off me. Thank the iPods for little miracles.

Two more we coming at me, so I did this awesome, once-in-a-lifetime-because-I-never-seem-to-be-able-to-do-these-things-again moves that consisted of me grabbing onto a pipe above my head, jumping up in the air and kicking them both in the face. They fell down to the floor groaning, when I jumped on them and cackled.

Oh yeah. Three down, a bunch more to go.

I took a minute to see how my bloody mcawesomesause family was doing.

Skye and Thor were back to back, fighting off evil crazy ones and looking totally badass whilst doing so. They always fought best together, which is why Gaia, Violet, and I think they were separated at birth or something. It's…strange, to say the least.

Gaia was in a corner with the mutants, an angry look on her pixie features, making weird earthly-related stuff happen to the Trackers.

I was just about to jump into the fight again when I saw something pass the doorway that was our ticket out of this hell-hole.

Violet and Fang!

The two of them were staring, as shocked as we had been when we saw all the Trackers, with some little mutant boy.

I yelled happily, running towards them and knocking Trackers out of my way. However, a few of them just refused to move.

So, I made a stupid mistake.

Confession time: I may be a Lightning elemental, but I have practically no control over it, like I do with my Fire and Shadow. When it storms, I have to move away from the flock so I don't zap them.

Which is why when I tried to blast them to Hades with my Lightning…I missed completely and hit the space above Violet and Fang.

"What the hell was that for?!" Fang yelled at me, ducking to avoid bits of crap.

I would have answered, but once again the Trackers jumped in front of me.

Life despises me. Because one of them pushed me into the wall, something hit my head and stayed there, almost making me black out and most definitely fall backwards…

…right into the person I hate most in this world.

Shadow.

"Looks like you're loosing your touch, sweetheart." His voice sent cold chills down my back, and I don't mean that in a romantic way. More like a do-that-again-and-I'll-eat-your-hands-like-Carl-the-Llama-does-to-people-who-don't-like-bacon. (Long story. Don't ask.)

I tried to loosen his grip, kick him, anything. But noooo, the bacon has decided to torture me today.

"Get off me," I growled, fighting both him and unconsciousness. Whatever was in my head was killing me.

I heard a deep chuckle. "I always liked you best, Allie."

And once again, I was thrown against a wall (these walls just love me, what can I say? It's like paparazzi with machine guns). This time, however, I was being choked to death.

Allow me to have a moment: So he likes me the most, but I'm the one getting choked to death? Where is the justice in this? Aren't _blonds_ supposed to be the dumb ones? No offense to blondes.

I ignored my confusion about the blond issue when the edges of my vision started going black, and I started to really struggle to breath (as in the Fire elemental equivalent of sweat started to form on my forehead, and my face turning red).

Dimly, I heard someone call out my name, and something else.

Instantly, I knew I had to get to that voice. I kicked out, trying to get Shadow to drop me. All that mattered now was that voice.

And just like that, someone roared and Shadow let go of me.

I laid there on my side, gasping for breath, blinking fast in an attempt to clear my vision, and the back of my head burning.

What I saw before me, however, was enough to send me into shock.

Standing over Shad's limp body was not Violet, like I'd thought it would be.

It was _Fang_.

He looked sort of like an avenging angel, black wings spread out behind him, angry expression, evil glint in his eyes.

Well, I mean, if angels fought with steel pipes.

I stared at him as he walked over to me. He'd just saved my life.

Aw hell. Now I owed him. I hated owing people.

His free hand, the one not holding the pipe, gently felt along the back of my head. I winced as he pulled a piece of something out. I tried not to look at the hand that was covered in my blood and some random object that had been stuck in my head.

"You okay?"

I coughed. "Fine. Just peachy."

"You know, injuries are bad for you."

"Thanks, Sherlock…for that…wonderful piece…of advice," I choked out, rubbing my throat.

A Tracker appeared behind him. We'd been in a corner, unseen to the crazy battle before us.

"Fang!" I spluttered, **(That's a weird word…)** trying to stand. He wouldn't be able to--

_WHAM!_ Fang's pipe hit the poor guy in the stomach, and a quick punch had him stumbling back into the fight.

I frowned. Hazily, I wondered if this was an older batch of Trackers the School was trying to get rid of. They seemed ridiculously easy to knock out.

Fang sat down beside me again, unfazed. He ripped off the sleeves of his windbreaker and tied them together around my head. "You're loosing to much blood. We need to get you to Gaia."

Okay, I admit, I was feeling like crap and the lights were pulling weird tricks on me. The edges of vision were blurry, and my thoughts were starting to feel like jelly. But still, I thought he was overreacting. Elementals heal fast. I was _fine_.

Or so I thought until I tried to stand.

Black spots swam before me, a huge _whoosh_-ing sound drowned out everything, my head burned, and I fell back again.

Fang caught me easily, like he did this kind of thing everyday.

"Lemme…go…" I croaked out. I was _not_ this weak.

"So you can get yourself killed? Tempting, but no." He picked me up bridal style. " 'Sides, Violet's got some pyromaniac planned about to be started, and I doubt you wanna experience it first-hand."

He started running. Every step he took almost dragged me under, but I fought it off somehow.

"Fang! What are you--oh, no…" Gaia's voice trailed off, and I could see her worried look, one hand covering her mouth.

" 'S fine. M' alright." What the hell had I hit anyway? Normal walls don't do this--not even if they used machine guns and unicorn horns.

Fang answered for me. "She had a piece of glass in the back of her head, not enough to do serious damage. Surprised she hasn't bled to death."

Well then. Strange way to start an afternoon.

"Oh, Alex," Gaia muttered. "When are you going to learn to be careful?"

I coughed, leaning into Fang's chest a little more. He had a nice chest. It wasn't--oh my bacon, forget I ever thought that. I mentally smacked myself. _Bad Alex!_

"Flock…equivalent…of hell…freeze…over." Which was when bacon tasted bad, Violet and I become cheerleaders, Skye and Thor stop making bad jokes, and Gaia started cussing.

"And fifteen, fourteen, thirt--what the fudge-suckers?"

I groaned. The rest of the flock had arrived.

"I''m going to pretend I know whats going on, and that whatever's going is normal. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!" Skye shouted.

Silence. Dimly heard Trackers coming.

Isn't this the part where you hear the really big KA-BOOM?

Then Violet, Skye, and Thor started screaming at each other.

"YOU SAID--"

"DON'T YOU 'YOU SAID' ME! WHAT ABOUT THOR AND HIS STUPID LITTLE--"

"DON'T EVEN _TRY_ TO PIN THIS ONE ON ME!"

Gaia gently poked my shoulder.

"Guys! Shut the fudge up!" I snapped. They did. "We need…plan." I prayed to the iPods that Violet would pull through for me like she always does. She did. (Remind me to tell that girl I love her to death.)

"Alex is right. Gaia, you take Fang and head to the cave. You can take care of Alex there." I started to say something, injury be damned, but Gaia covered my mouth before I even opened it.

"Got it."

"Skye and I can hold these guys back--try and get the bomb to go off. That'll give you guys a good head start. We'll lead 'em and ditch 'em, then meet you up later."

"Me?" Thor asked.

"You need to go to Rose--tell her everything."

"Sierra…" I mumbled. She need a flock present.

"What?"

"She said Sierra," Fang said. "And something about a flock present."

Had I said that out loud? My bad…But she did need one. (Flock present is code for 'beat the chiz outta them and make them wish they were never born.)

"Agreed." Was it just me, or was Violet's voice like, a billion times higher? And what was up with the lights in this place?

"May the bacon forever be with you," Gaia said solemnly. I almost started cracking up. It was an old flock joke.

"May the iPods guide you," Thor said with a grin, then he leaned in, kissed Gaia, and flew off.

"And may the evil chainsaws of death never touch your crazed wings." Violet and Skye took off as well.

"Here, Fang, can you lean her up a bit? It might help the bleeding a bit. Alex, honey, you're gonna have to wrap your arms around his neck."

We did as she asked. My arms felt like lead.

My face ended up right beside Fang's, my nose pressing into his the side of his neck.

_This is not awkward_, I told myself. But it was.

It also turned painful (or more painful) when Fang put his hand over an old scar, three long, black jagged lines that spread over my lower back, and I almost cried out. I think I did whimper, though.

"Oh, crap, sorry!" Gaia chirped, sounding oddly cheerful. But she moved Fang's hand from the damn scar, so I ignored it. Until she put that arm around my stomach.

_So not awkward._

"She's got a scar there," I heard the Pixie explain. Or something like that. I was almost out.

We took off.

A thought pop into my mind, about the voice I'd heard while Shadow had been choking me, the one that I had been determined to reach.

_WHAT IF IT HAD BEEN FANG?!_

Why had I been so desperate to reach him?

Random memory:

_"Uh-huh." Rose said with a slightly evil grin. "I--" Gaia ran forward and covered her mouth, then whispered something too soft for me to hear. Rose nodded, ad Gaia backed away._

_"Okay. Just so we understand each other." she said._

_That's when I first got suspicious, especially when I remembered the secret glance Violet and Gaia had given each other when I told them Fang was turning into a Shadow elemental._

It meant something. I knew it did. But then unconsciousness took over, and I forgot all about it.

* * *

**Go listen to Take It Off by Ke$ha...It's so Fanging addicting. I'm having an affair with a unicorn. Bacon. Baa-haa. Sorry this was so jumpy and chiz.**


	14. Why She Hates Me, Sorta: Fang

**Okay, so, if you guys got like, three emails saying I updated, sorry. I uploaded the wrong doc, the one with what I had of the next chapter, and I realized it three second ago. Then I did it again. D:**

* * *

**Fang POV:**

Alex went limp in my arms, so I guess she was out for the count.

I was surprised she'd made it this far anyway. And that she hadn't really tried to fight me off when I picked her up. I'd expected chaos that would rival the evilest of all Iggy's bombs.

Probably the blood loss.

We flew for hours. It had to have been midnight before we landed in cave almost completely hidden from view.

Gaia went to Alex as soon as we'd both landed. She tried to get Alex off me, but that girl has got one hellva grip.

We tried everything aside from the life-threatening ideas, until we finally gave up.

"Want me to just hold her while you work?" I asked, seeing how tired Gaia looked.

She gave me a small half smile. "I would love you forever."

"Don't tell Thor that," I muttered, sitting down and trying to get as comfortable as possible when you have a hundred pound mutant girl that's got a fever of, like, one-fifty and climbing and hasn't showered in a week (not that I should talk about the showering thing--I haven't either). I didn't really mind holding her, though. It was kind of…comforting, in a way.

Forget I ever thought that.

Gaia stood behind my right shoulder, doing whatever she does to help Alex out.

We were quiet for a while. Then Alex stirred slightly and breathed out a name: 'Sasha'.

I twisted my head around and raised an eyebrow at Pixie. I'd probably used my word count for the whole year this past week.

There was more silence for a second or two. Then, "Sasha's the reason she won't let go of you. She never lets go of anything while she's sleeping. Skye and Thor learned that a few months ago, when they tried to steal the pillow she was using to cushion her head for a prank one night--Skye had a broken nose and Thor a black eye before she realized it was them. Anyway, Alex was seven and Sash was five when they got thrown in the same cage. The two of them were like Skye and Thor at the time, or so Violet says.

"But the whitecoats thought Sasha was too wild, too uncontrollable, too powerful--"

"She was five."

"And could kill a person just by touching them. She could suck the life force out of them, if she wanted to. Make them into mutants that could only survive three seconds before they dropped to the ground in pain. And she used it against them. So the whitecoats decided to kill her. They started weakening her so she couldn't fight back when they decided to come. Alex knew it. She hid Sasha behind her and fought off anyone who came too close--so did Violet and Alex's other friend, Shadow. But they knocked all of them out. Killed Sasha in Alex's arms and walked off, leaving her there. Alex kept a death grip on her body the whole time, even knocked out. She woke up to her dead body, covered in the blood that had spilled when they killed her.

"Alex was hysterical--wouldn't do anything for hours but scream, trying to wake Sasha up. Then she just stopped, starting crying her eyes out. I didn't know her then, but Violet says it was horrible. I think she stills his nightmares about it. Alex does." Gaia sighed, shaking her head sadly.

"Who's Shadow?" Anything to get away from the depressing story.

"You might have seen him when we were escaping--tall guy, really pale, black hair, black eyes. As this look in his face like he's better than you. Strong build."

I nodded. "That was the guy choking Alex."

She grimaced. "No wonder she's been croaking so much. He and Alex used to be best friends, like Sasha, but even closer. He loved her too. He'd get this look in his eyes if you talked about her, or if she talked, or if he saw her. Alex never noticed, since she's not really the romantic type. Then one day the labcoaters took him to a room and he came out as heartless as the people who killed Sash. It just about destroyed Alex, but she kept trying to convince us that he was still on our side, still one of us. It took until the day he--" She broke off, looking at the girl in my lap. "That's her story to tell. I won't. But one of the reasons she's been acting all evil towards you is because you look like him. She'll get over it though. Just give her some time."

With that, she finished the bandage on Alex's head and walked off. "I'll take first watch. You should get some sleep," and flew into the night.

I leaned against the cave wall, putting my arms around Alex's waist. Might as well get try and get some sleep.

But it was an epic fail.

I was way too aware of Alex's death grip on me. If she woke up right now, I'd be dead. World War III would begin. Things like that.

She didn't.

I don't know if she was just sleeping or still knocked out, but she didn't wake up, even when Gaia landed in the cave mouth a few hours later.

She was frowning. "Skye and Violet should be here by now. Something must have gone wrong."

"Maybe they're just running a bit late," I told her.

"Maybe…I hope so." She sighed, rubbing her head. "Whatever. You hungry?"

I looked down at Alex.

"Oh. My bad. Too bad Violet isn't here yet. She'd be able to fix that." She cracked a smile at me.

"Awesomeness."

We talked a bit more, then I started drifting off.

I saw Gaia get up, dig through her backpack, and grab something. There was a flash, and I had a sinking feeling it was a camera.

Hell. I was dead.

* * *

**I'm so proud! Twice in one day!**


	15. Never Look Up: Alex

**:D I'm feeling very proud. And now OuttaControl's evil penguins won't try and kill me in my sleep.**

* * *

**Alex POV:**

Imagine waking up with your arms wrapped around some guy's neck, his arms around your waist, and your face buried in his neck.

EXTREMELY. AWKWARD. Especially since it was Fang.

I thought about creating world panic. Causing World War III. That sort of thing.

But he looked really peaceful, and he'd saved my life. I could let it slide this time. For now.

I carefully slid off him and stood up. Fang twitched, then went still again. Hallelujah.

Stretching my super stiff arms, I walked over to the mouth of the cave. My head whirled around as I looked for Gaia.

This is one of those moments when the evil ninja assassin jumps on top of you, because, of course, you didn't look up.

"Hey, genius, up here," Gaia chirped, kicking some dirt in my direction.

I muttered something, then spread my wings and flew up beside her. "I hate it when I forget to look up."

"Awww, the poor wittle baby," the pixie said, patting my head in the most degrading way. I blinked. That was a big word for me. I'm so proud. Continuing on.

I shoved her hand off my head. "Where is everyone?"

Her face saddened and went serious. "I don't know--I've been up all night, waiting for them." She grinned evilly, "You, of course, were too busy cuddling up with Shady boy down there. Next time, would you mind getting a room?"

I glared at her, wondering if I should shove her off the side of the cave mouth thingy. She had wings. She wouldn't die.

"Well, it seemed like a good excuse not to have to sleep on the floor," I said, after all random retorts flew out of my mind.

Gaia just stared at me with this all-knowing look. "Something about him, I can't lie he's on my mind…" she sang, cackling and ducking when I tried to hit her.

"Stupid idiotic pixie," I grumbled, propping my head up on my knees.

"This is such a prefect moment. All we need is a breeze, and we could pretend that you're staring at the sunset, thinking of the boy you've mysteriously fallen in love with…Ah, such young love."

"The only problem with that statement is that it's not sunset, it's sunrise, there's no breeze, and I _haven't _fallen in love with a boy."

"So does that mean you've fallen in love with a girl?"

My head whipped around and I stared at Gaia. That was _not_ something she'd say. Ever.

But she was completely ignoring me, still rambling on. "If so, then I'm going to have to leave now. I'm just not that kind of girl."

"So does that mean you're a guy?" I asked, smiling.

"That made no sense."

"Well, you said you weren't that type of girl!" Okay, I was freaking myself out. I was sounding _way_ too cheerful.

"Oh…well--"

"What the heck are you guys doing now?"

Gaia and I both jumped, turning quickly and raising our arms to do some elemental damage.

But it was just Fang. Not that I wouldn't mind doing some elemental damage to him. Except he saved my life. Which meant I owed him. Which really, really, really, really sucked.

There was an awkward, tense moment as Fang and I looked at each other. Gaia was, of course, the one to break it.

"Hiya Fang!" Typical Pixie Girl; ignore the strangeness, try to sound as polite as humanly possible--and then some.

He grunted in reply. "The others come yet?"

We both shook our heads.

"So now what?" Gaia asked.

I sighed. "We'll wait another couple hours, but then we need to move. I don't trust this place, and we can leave something for them to know where we're headed."

"Want me to go ahead and pack up?"

I nodded. "I'll keep watch here."

She skipped over to Fang. "C'mon Shady Boy!" she chirped, linking her arm though his and jumping off the roof.

I tried (without success) as Fang was yanked down with Gaia, yelling something at her. Gotta love that girl. Or at least I do.

I propped my head up on my knees again, then ripped that bandage on my head off. It kept sliding in my eyes.

So I sat there, watching the sky, for about three hours.

Extremely. Boring.

Here's some of the highlights:

Around the one hour mark, a random bird flew in, honking loudly, and hit my head with its wing.

"Gee thanks, pal," I muttered.

…

…

…

…

…

…

Another hour passed. Leaves moved. The breeze Gaia had wanted earlier came in, but it still wasn't sunset.

…

…

…

Thirty minutes. Fang flew up to give me some food, by the Pixie Girl's demands. I grumbled something that might have been a thanks, he muttered something that might have been a you're welcome, and disappeared.

…

…

…

Thirty minutes (which makes a total of two hours, when combined with the other times! See, I'm educational!). I mentally curse Gaia for getting Something About Him by the School Gyrls stuck in my head. Who spells girls like that anyway? But at least it wasn't Take It Off by Ke$ha (her name reminds me of ketchup).

…

…

…

Thirty minutes. I got rid of the School Gyrls song. It was replaced by Take It Off. Dammit.

…

…

…

And that was my watch. So very interesting, wasn't it?

I hopped off the roof. "Guys…we gotta go."

Fang grabbed his pack, but Gaia kinda dragged herself up, and verrryyyy slowly bent down and got it. I knew how she felt. I didn't want to leave without them either. We were a family, and we were just about all we had. Leaving was just….wrong.

But we had to.

Gaia thought of every possible reason to delay us. I let her.

Fang, however, wasn't that patient. He keep fidgeting, sometimes letting out annoyed sighs, grumbling. Maybe he didn't understand what it meant to leave. I dunno.

Anyways, Gaia managed to set us back thirty minutes.

Still no sign of them.

I grabbed my pack, walked to the front of the cave, and started to spread out my wings.

"Wait!" Gaia yelled.

"_What_?!" I yelled back at her, turning around and glaring.

She ran past me. "_Thor_!" She screamed happily, flinging her arms around the silver haired boy.

I stared.

Violet and Skye dropped down from my watch post, and Violet gave me a really big hug, one that nearly smashed my guts together and made it hard to breathe.

People never look up.

* * *

**-cackles-**


	16. We are NOT Going There: Alex

**Sadly, this is sorta a filler chapter. D: On the bright side, I'm Changing Fang into an elemental soon. :D**

* * *

**Alex POV:**

There were hugs. Mainly given out by Violet and Gaia, since I wouldn't hug Skye and Thor if you paid me twenty bucks, and the other guys weren't that fond of them either. Except for our lovely couples, of course.

The highlight of the reunion was when Violet walked over and hugged Fang.

I mean, you could tell he was glad to see her. But as soon as her arms wrapped around him, he went stiff. I imagine it was like hugging a rock. Not to say that I've hugged rocks. Nope, not me.

_A rock with a nice chest_…

Cue mental smack. I even winced at the after affect.

And then, well, Skye and Thor just can't pass up a chance to torture somebody. Poor Fang. He should have hid his dislike of hugs.

"Fangy-poo, we've missed you so much!" they shouted, pretending to cry as they hugged the annoyed mutant.

"These past few hours have been so unbearable without your non-smiling, depressing, emo-ish self around!" Skye told him, still faking tears.

"Un-bear-a-ble. Four syllables. Nice," I told them.

"I AM NOT EMO!" Fang shouted, trying to escape the hug/tear fest.

"Oh dear, he's still in denial! Darling, please, you need to admit your problems!" Thor croaked.

"GET OFF ME!"

"They grow up so fast…" Skye sniffled loudly.

"Just yesterday he loved our hugs! Did anything to get one!" Thor was _really_ layin' on the tears now. Stupid elemental with control over his Lightning. He made me sad.

"As non-touching as this is, can we go now?" I asked, hands on hips and tapping my foot loudly.

Skye and Thor finally let the poor guy go, only to hug each other, sniffle, and mumble about their memories with Fang--which wasn't a very long list. I rolled my eyes.

"I'd love to leave, but just one thing. Can we _please_ stop at a hotel or something? I've got about five years worth of blood and dirt on me, my boots are ripped to shreds, and I'm tired of sleeping on cave floors that are harder than vamp skin." Violet said, barely able to keep a whine out of her voice.

I thought about it. Violet wasn't one to complain, and everyone's clothes and boots were pretty much screwed. Especially my shirt.

Finally, I nodded. "Let's at least get to Florida or something though--I don't trust this place at the moment."

Violet and Gaia whooped whilst Skye and Thor cackled and yelled, "BEACH!"

So we took off to Florida and the promise of chillin' by the beach.

_Florida, here we come._

Our first day in Florida was…strange…

We arrived in Panama City pretty wiped out. We walked into the first decent hotel by the beach we could find--which wasn't that hard for a place like this.

The cost of the three rooms probably would have had me in shock if I hadn't been so tired. Instead of arguing or yelling, I just handed over the credit card Rose had given us a long time ago.

"Enjoy your stay!" the clerk person said with a cheerful tone that could have rivaled Gaia's. We all muttered something, and headed to our rooms.

Mistake number one: _Taking the elevator._

There were a couple of other people in there, so we were kinda crowded. I felt sorry for those poor people. I mean, we didn't exactly smell like a bunch of roses.

Skye and Thor just made things worse. See, there's this list of things to do on an elevator. And it was one of their life-long dreams to complete that list.

So this is how our ride went:

Thor randomly reached out and grabbed the elevator doors to stop them from closing. About a minute later he let them close. "Hiya Bob!"

Skye grinned. "Bob! Long time no see!"

The other people just stared at the two of them, but neither noticed, since they were too busy talking to 'Bob'.

I facepalmed myself as they started talking about unicorns.

One of the passengers got off, so my annoying mutants decided to let Bob go.

"BYE BOB!" they both yelled, _really_ loud.

Then there was silence for a little bit. Then Thor said, "You'd better check on…" he glanced around at the other people, then whispered-yelled, "the thing."

Skye nodded, slinging his backpack around, unzipping it, and peering inside. "You got enough air in there little buddy?"

The four remaining people stared in horror at the backpack as Skye nodded again and put back on the right way. "He's all good."

Thor didn't answer, since he was staring at one of the other peoples. Then he raised a trembling hand and pointed at the little ten year old riding with us. "_You're one of Them_!"

The little kid stared back at him, before he started giggling.

But Thor just looked freaked. "We're all gonna die because of your decision. You will betray the unicorns."

Little Kid's mouth dropped open, "But I wuve da unicorns!"

Thor shook his head sadly. "No. Not like peanut butter and acorns."

The kid started crying. Needless to say, his parents grabbed him and got off ASAP. One more left.

Skye stared him down. Poor guy was freaking out internally over in the corner when Skye said, "I have new socks on."

"DID YOU FEEL THAT?" Thor yelled.

"Group hug!"

Horror filled me. The blood drained from my face. My hands clenched into fists.

"Not only no, but _hell_ no," I told him.

Skye shrugged, and he and Thor grabbed the other guy and hugged him, whilst the poor man struggled, trying to break free.

When he finally did, it was his stop, and he practically ran screaming from the elevator.

I Gibbs smacked the two of them. "You idiots! Why did you have to make that kid cry? Blaming the death of the unicorns on a little kid is _not_ on that bacon-hating list."

Thor shrugged. "I just felt the urge. It's like craving for hands."

Fang stared. "What?"

"Llamas With Hats. Carl's a rabid man-eating, hand chomping, head butting, ice sculpture kissing, harpooning, ship killing, elderly hating, crescent roll loving psychotic killer."

Fang just shook his head and didn't reply.

We finally reached our floor after a slightly awkward silence.

Mistake number two: _Not saying who was rooming with who._

Because when we got there, Violet and Skye grabbed a card at the same time Gaia and Thor did, then quickly raced to their rooms before I even opened my mouth to say anything.

There was another pause.

Then Fang and I looked at each other, realizing what this meant. Our jaws dropped and we stared at each other in pure horror.

I closed by mouth before bugs started making a new home there, and, very slowly, with probably the most horrified expression on my face, I walked over to my room and threw my stuff down on the bed.

Because, honestly, I knew there was no way I was going to get out of this. We'd always paired up like this, except I usually got a super small room all to myself.

_I should have seen this coming_, I thought. _I'm such a freaking idiot_.

But really, the Flock should have thought this out more. Me + Fang + rooming together = really bad stuff.

I rubbed my face as Fang walked in, throwing his stuff on the bed across from mine.

The two of us stood there for a second, staring at each other.

"You want a shower first, or what?" he asked. I almost jumped, but (score!) kept it cool.

"I'll get one," I told him, slinging my bag over my shoulder again. He grunted and flopped out on the bed.

So, anyways, I got a shower. And it was bliss. Really, people, never underestimate the power of the shower. They're amazing. Almost as mcawesomesause as Seth. Or Alice. Or Jacob. Showers are one of the best things on this planet.

And now I'm probably creeping you out with this shower talk, so I'll shut up now.

I finished my shower, feeling lighter without my layers of gunk, and also very awkward. I grabbed my only clean T-shirt--ripped several times, but there wasn't any blood on it at least--and my last pair of cargo shorts. I fished out my gloves and a pair of socks, then put my ratty boots on.

I was a strange mixture of hooker for rednecks and an actual redneck. Creeptastic.

I walked out and threw my stuff on my bed as Fang got up for his turn. Digging in my bag yet again, I found my super old brush and attempted to control the tangle of stuff on my head. I managed to pull it into a decent braid at the back of my head by the time Fang got out, dressed in the same clothes he'd been wearing.

There was a knock on the door and Violet danced through. "Okay, we need new clothes," was the first thing she said, instead of 'I'm sorry we made you guys room together please forgive us and don't rip us to shreds.'

My face turned into a scowl in her direction, and she gave me the standard 'get over it look'. "And just what is the plan, milady?"

The grin widened. "Oh no…she's using her medieval language. People are going to die in a corner without bacon."

Fang just rolled his eyes. My scowled deepened.

And the grin spread. I swear it was gonna eat up her face and earn it's own area code. "We could hit the mall that Gaia looked up a little while ago."

And it was the elevator group hug all over again: Horror filled me. The blood drained from my face. My hands clenched into fists. (Horror is such a mcawesomesause word. I dunno why.)

"C'mon, there's gotta be someplace else beside a freaking _mall_," I whined. Malls. I hated malls. They needed to _die_. Along with Mondays and pink.

"Nope! It'll be _fun_, Alex! You do know what fun is, right?"

"Eating bacon and beating the living chiz outta people."

"Issues. You have some serious issues, my friend."

"Are you really that slow? Or did you just now decided to voice that opinion out loud?"

"Voicing. I've always known you were strange."

"Well, at least we don't have to send you to the hospital for possible brain damage."

Violet wrinkled her nose. "Ew. Quiet changing the subject. We need to go the mall."

We argued for a good thirty minutes.

We went to the mall.

Dammit.

* * *

**Stupid filler chapter. Hope you laughed at least once.**


	17. Malls, Stalkers, and Beaches: Alex

**Sadly, this too is a bit of a filler chapter. But it's only because Fang's becoming a Shadow next chapter.**

**All clothes bought by Alex and the shoes are on the bottom of my profile, along with pictures of some of the characters and stuffs. You guys should look at the 'Umm...' thing. :D**

**Comment of the Week: **Natalee--When in doubt, sing the Canadian National Anthem and bake brownies in your microwave.

* * *

**Alex POV:**

The mall.

The most hated, non-School place I can think of at the moment.

Nix that. I can. And it's name is…

_Victoria Secret_.

WHO'S STUPID IDEA WAS THIS? If I ever find out, I'm going to murder them! And if they're dead, I hope they rot in hell for creating this terrible place! It's like the temple of sexism! It's partially because of this place that girls are considered weak and only toys!

But I digress…

So. We went to the frigging mall. Joy.

As soon as we walked in, Gaia dragged me over to the ATM to take out some money for the boys, so that they could go get their stuff whilst we got ours.

I glared daggers at the three of them as they smirked at me, since I was being dragged over to a clothing store.

Boys. They didn't know how luck they were at the moment.

The first store we went to was some weird place called Forever 21, which seems like a pretty stupid name to me. Inside was a bunch of clothes that I wouldn't wear if you paid me a thousand bucks. Nu-uh. Jeans that were already ripped, shirt with low neck lines…The place gave me the chills.

We didn't get anything there, although I was forced to try on about ten different outfits.

Next stop was Aeropostale, yet another store with a weird name. It was pretty much the same thing as Forever 21, so I won't bore you with the details.

And then…_that_ place. I refuse to mention its name.

"No!" I yelled when we started towards the blown up picture of…that person.

Gaia sighed. "It won't kill you!"

"Yes it will! I'm _not_ going in there!"

"We'll just drag you in there like we've been doing all day then," Violet told me with an evil look in her eyes.

But this time? This time I fought so hard they could barely drag me a couple of inches (I think it was the shoes--Violet and Gaia were both wearing some old flip-flops they'd gotten at Aeropostale. I was still wearing boots).

"Come…on! It'll…release your…girly side!" Gaia said, trying to make a joke out of it all.

That made me fight even more.

"Dammit Alex!" Violet yelled, still trying to drag me over, but slipping on her shoes every time.

"I'm not going!" I snapped, trying to wriggle free of their death grips.

About three minutes later, when we had this nice big crowd cheering us on, they stopped, all three of us gasping for breath.

"Fine…you win…this time," Violet gasped. Gaia nodded.

I just cackled and ran away. As long as I could get away from that store.

I was standing by a phone case thingy stand when I heard the music;

**Talk to the mirror, choke back tears  
****And keep telling yourself that  
****"I'm a diva!"  
****Oh and the smokes in that cigarette box on the table  
****They just so happen to be  
****Laced with nitroglycerin**

**I'm the new cancer, never looked better,  
****You can't stand it  
****Because you say so under your breath  
****You're reading lips ****"When did he get all confident?" **

Internally cackling at the Panic! At The Disco's weird song 'There's A Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought Of It Yet', I followed the awesome music.

And I came upon the most bloody mcawesomesause store I've ever been in: Hot Topic.

Music blared from the speaker and drowned everything out. T-shirts with all kinds of bands were over placed by the left wall, with the designs on the space above it. CD's were right in front of them. Gir stuff was over to the right, along with Twilight (ew…) and Alice In Wonderland (YOU'RE LATE FOR TEA!!).

I loved it. I wanted to live here.

I started looking through the band shirts that looked really cool. I got a purple-ish Flyleaf T-shirt that had this, like, white mist on it, a Gir shirt with the chocolate bubble gum, and two Alice In Wonderland Cheshire Cat shirts. Then I grabbed a couple of cargo shorts, this belt that was too awesome to be ignored, black lace-up fingerless gloves, some random beanie hat, and sunglasses.

I probably just bored you to tears there, but it was fun.

By the time I finally managed to drag myself outta that store, the other two had found me.

Violet sighed. "I should've figured. You just _had_to go to the emo place."

I glared and decided to defend my new store. "It's not emo! It's awesome! And it's defiantly better than Victoria Secret!"

She and Gaia just shook their heads. "Where do you wanna go?"

"Back to the hotel?" I smiled hopefully.

Gaia snorted. "No. Violet and I haven't gotten anything yet."

I looked down at the Victoria Secret bag she was holding. "Then what's that?"

"Do you really wanna see it?"

Images took over my mind. "No thanks."

She smirked. "That's what I thought."

"We should go to the Nike store and get some shoes," Violet randomly said.

So we did. And we all came out with a pair of awesome tennis shoes. Yeah, buddy.

Violet and Gaia grabbed the rest of their stuff at American Eagle, Journeys, and Rue 21 (what's with all the 21s?), and we met up with the boys at the food court.

I. Friggin. Love. Chick-Fil-A. The angels sing when I see that place. It's amazing.

And finally, we ended our shopping trip. Despite Chick-Fil-A and Hot Topic, I wasn't sad to see it end.

But noooo, that would have been too easy.

"WAIT!" Gaia screamed, almost making all five us deaf. People stared.

"What?!" I hissed.

"We're at the beach! And we forgot swimsuits!"

…

"No. Just…no." I told her.

"Yes. We're going back."

"We have frigging _wings_. How are you going to hide them when you're swimming?"

She thought for a minute. "Couldn't you hide them?"

I shook my head. "You know I can't. It doesn't work with other people."

She sighed. "Okay…but we can still go to the beach, right?"

I shrugged. "Don't we always?" I smiled when her face lit up and she started her happy skip dance thingy.

Crisis averted. No more mall. Hallelujah.

I think I jinxed us when I said crisis averted.

We had gone back to the hotel to change, throw away our old clothes, and pack everything else in our bags. Then we hit the beach in our brand new stuff.

For a while, it was fun. We threw water at each other and listen to music, laughing and talking and all that good stuff.

But about a couple hours later, I got the feeling someone was watching us.

I ignored it for a little while, until I started really getting uncomfortable. I twisted my neck around, trying to see what was driving my paranoid meter off the roof.

Sitting there, on a sand dune thingy a few yards away, was my stalker boy, Shadow.

_I hope you die in a corner without bacon or nachos or an iPod, _I though-snapped.

"Guys. C'mon, we gotta go."

Skye glared. "Alex--"

"Shadow's right frigging behind us you idiot!" I whisper hissed.

A little bit of the blood drained out of his face.

"How are we gonna get out of here without him calling ten thousand Trackers on us?" Thor asked.

I'd just been wondering the same thing, and had absolutely no idea. I was going to say as much when Violet came up with an idea.

"I'll be right back," she said cheerfully, then walked over to a bunch of giggling girl that had been staring at Shadow.

I'm not sure what she said, and I don't really want to. But she got them to pretty much attack Shad (I think they were trying to get him to ask one of them out), and we slipped away quietly, snickering.

Elemental Freaks: 1, Evil Elemental Traitors: 0.

Hell yeah. We're just that awesome.

Still snickering, we went back to the hotel, grabbed our stuff, and we were out.

"Hey, guys! Where we headed now?" Thor yelled over the wind.

I thought back to the map Rose and Emmett had made. "Arizona!"

Fang gave a slight jerk, but his face showed nothing, like always.

_He's good._ Aside from the jerking, of course.

Violet flew a little closer to him. "What's up? Every time someone says Arizona you look like you've seen your death or something."

Fang didn't say a word.

Violet kept pestering him to the point where the rest of us turned around and yelled at her to shut up and leave him alone.

The world should have ended at that moment: I agreed on something with Skye and Thor, and I…defended (?) Fang. Or something along those lines. But nothing happened.

A few states later we landed in a forest for the night.

And boy, it was _fun_: Beating up people, being beat up, and sore all over.

Yay...

* * *

**Yeah! Fang's gonna be a Shadow! WOOT!**


	18. I Hate Trees: Fang

**Okay, people keep asking me if the orginal Flock (Max's Flock) are going to hop in randomly at some point in the story.**

**The answer? Yes.**

**I've decided that once I'm through torturing Alex and Fang, I'll make a sequel and torture them, Max, and other various characters. (I love being evil to characters. It's so fun.)**

**If you guys have any other random questions, you can PM me, leave it in a review, or track me down via other sites I'm on and ask me there. Which would kinda creep me out. Unless you're Max, who sometimes talks to me on DeviantArt. :D**

**Random Comment of the Chapter: **Sub: This is the U.S.S...crap.

* * *

"Ugh!" Alex yelled for the fifth time that night.

I looked at her, wondering--for the fifth time that night--if she'd finally lost her mind.

Violet and Gaia had managed to keep from asking what was with her for a little while, but they lost it this time.

"Okay, what gives Alex?" Violet asked.

"Are you _kidding_ me? I know I have a heightened sense of elements, but _come on_! Can't you feel it? Ugh, it's worse than when you two Changed!"

I had no idea what she was talking about, and it didn't look like Skylar and Thor did either. Violet and Gaia shared a glance.

"But that would mean-" Gaia turned towards me.

"Exactly! And I can't believe you guys can't feel it!" She kicked a few rocks, her hair losing the gold streaks it usually had. Skylar, Thor, and I all looked at each other with her-insanity-caught-up-with-her looks.

A few minutes later I got a funny feeling in my stomach. Every sight seemed a little clearer, every sound a little sharper.

Alex had been pacing back and forth for a while now, and she turned back to me.

"Hey. I didn't know you had scars on your face," I said suddenly. Her red hair famed her face perfectly, but I could see the small dark lines, especially the one going across her right eye. In fact, I think it went _through_ her eye, and I could even see that that part of it was a shade darker than the rest.

Everyone but Alex looked at me in surprise.

"I don't see any scars," Skylar said. He stared at her face, like it all might become clear soon. I frowned.

"Dude, how can you not see it? It's going through her freakin _eye._"

Violet and Gaia shared another look, each of them with these weird, happy/evil expressions.

"Well, _I_ don't see anything," he muttered quietly.

"Well, _I _think you're blind."

There was a small moment of silence. Then Violet straightened up, looking alarmed. "Whoa…"

"About time!" Alex snapped. "Son of a fudgesucker, when is he gonna Change?!"

"You didn't act this crazy last time," Violet noted.

"Last time I had plenty of Trackers to keep me slightly sane. Unless you'd rather I beat _you_ up."

She grimaced. "I'll pass. Thanks though."

Something dawned on Alex then. "Hey, you know--"

"No," Violet said immediately.

"Aw, come on. You _know_ that he's--"

"No."

"Violet, either way--"

"_No_."

"Why not?" Alex demanded.

"Because he's my brother, and I am _not_ letting you."

"But still, he's--"

"_NO_!"

Alex fell silent. Then, "You know--"

"ALEX!"

She shrugged.

That's when the pain started.

For a little bit it was just this pins and needles feeling in the back of my head, like when your arm falls asleep or something. Then it spread throughout my entire body.

And then I'm pretty sure I was lit on fire and thrown off the Empire State Building and onto a ton of bricks.

I fell on my knees in front of the tree I'd been leaning against, trying not to scream and giving out these weird, half strangled sounds and withering in pain.

Something wet slid down my face, over my closed eyelids. I think it was blood--my blood.

Images flashed--two hands, one olive toned, the other a bronze-ish color, their fingers linked together: a necklace hanging off a silver chain, depicting two roses, black and red, with the same color beads separating them although the stems were wrapped around each other: a building exploding: a girl lying facedown in a pile of ashes: me and Alex standing back-to-back with one arm raised.

More came, too blurry for me to make out. They ended suddenly, but the pain kept on comin'.

My weird bird-bones seemed to pop and bend in ways that should not ever be attempted. I think I threw up. I knew I almost screamed when my knuckles snapped and claws slid out of them.

Then, much like the images, it all stopped. I felt like…I dunno. Like part of the night, like a shadow, but that was way to cheesy. Surrounded by shadows.

Cold fury replaced the lingering traces of pain.

I didn't know why I was mad. I didn't know who I was mad at. But I wanted to hurt someone.

I managed to sit up, rubbing my head and almost sliced my eyebrows off with my brand new freaky claws.

Then came the part that made me feel like…well, an asshole.

"Fang?" a voice asked.

I whirled around, shifting into fight mode.

Dimly, I realized it was Violet in front of me, looking really worried. Whatever was making me so mad decided I should take it out on her.

I didn't have control over my own body. Not cool.

I lunged at her, claws outstretched, wanting to hurt her.

But (hallelujah!) a red blob of red demon-istic stuff slammed into my side.

Alex's mid-air tackle gave Skylar time to drag Violet away.

"Alex, you better not hurt him!" I heard Violet yell, but neither of us were paying too much attention.

I attempted to tackle her like she had me, but she tackled me with a lot more force, and we rolled right onto a hill.

There was a confusing mixed of Demon Girl over Shadow Boy, dirt flying around us while we narrowly avoided trees.

_BAM!_

Okay, so, maybe we didn't really _avoid_ the trees.

After crashing into it, the damn thing creaked and toppled over. Alex and I stood, both glaring at each other, trying to figure out who would make the next move.

Her leg kicked out and connected with my knee. I fell down, dodging the punch she threw at me, and hit her in the stomach.

She got knocked back a few feet, but leapt right back up and ran at me.

Grinning, I spread my wings and jumped into the night air.

She followed me easily, and thus began our sky fight.

My fist slammed into her jaw, her foot kicked me where the sun sure don't shine **(I love that phrase)**, my claws sliced her cheek, and then Alex did this weird two feet kick that sent me flying (no pun intended), but not before I got her with my claws again.

When I finally righted myself, I saw a pretty scary sight.

Alex was hovering in the air across from me, arms spread out to the side. Everything about her looked like it was on fire: her hair whipped around her face like flickering flames: the claws sprouting from her fingertips: her eyes, the whites of them replaced with cold red fury: and her hands, which actually were on fire.

Add that to her furious expression, the smoke drifting off her skin, and the flame droplets falling from the place where I'd scratched her, she look like a demon from hell.

I wondered what I looked like. Hopefully not as creepy as Demon Girl.

Suddenly Alex was there in front of me, claws raking down my cheek.

"Payback," she said happily.

She grabbed my arm to do God knows what, and I was surprised to find her hand didn't actually burn me. I made a mental note to ask Violet about that, assuming I lived.

I kneed Alex in the stomach and twisted her around, somehow forcing her wings in (and spitting out flame-feathers), when she, well, back-tackled me.

Let me tell you, she as the art of tackling _down_. I bet even Chuck Norris could learn from her (psh, yeah right).

We fell hundreds of feet, still fighting. I had a moment to wonder if we were going to go _splat!_ on the cliff when we hit the lake.

Pain spread through me, but ended as soon as I let go of Alex. Yet another thing to ask my sister about.

She looked horrible for a minute, her mouth open in a silent scream. But then she got herself under control, folded her wings in, and all that fire was replaced with shadows.

The fight began again.

Alex kicked me in the head just as I put my foot in her face. She body-slammed me, which is really weird underwater. I grabbed her hair and yanked her head back, and this black ball smashed into my face.

It didn't hurt at all. I punched her, but she dodged most of it and I only hit her in the shoulder.

We had this claw war, both of us trying to slice each other, but getting nothing but small scratches and bruises from where we kicked the other one.

It lasted for hours, our fight.

Both of us were exhausted, our punches and kicks half-hearted, the water starting to weigh down on us.

And then Alex started laughing.

It wasn't that weird cackle she sometimes had. It was actually _normal_. It made her look…well, kinda hot.

Forget I said that.

For a second, I just stood there, trying to figure out why she was laughing.

Unable to figure it out, I raised an eyebrow at her.

Alex grinned and started swimming to the surface, motioning me to follow her. I hesitated, wondering if this was some trick, then realized I didn't care. I was way too tired. So I followed her.

We finally dragged ourselves onto dry land, Alex still chuckling to herself. I flopped down beside her and nudged her foot.

"Okay, the reason I'm laughing is because that was the best fight I've had in forever," she said cheerfully.

I looked at her.

"What? I'm a Fire elemental--we like a good fight."

I rolled my eyes, but I had to admit I felt the same way. Especially since the cold fury I'd first felt was gone, and I had control of myself again.

I looked at her again. "Shouldn't that have healed by now?" I motioned to the place where I'd scratch her cheek.

She shook her head. "Normal stuff heals pretty fast, but elemental caused thingys take a lot longer."

Oh. That's nice.

We sat there for a while, looking at the stars and resting.

Suddenly this really big breeze came in. I thought it was warm, but Alex shivered.

"Aw, is the big, bad Fire elemental cold?" I asked.

She stuck her tongue out at me. "I just got drenched in water--Fire and Water do _not_ mix. Besides, for people like you, just about everything's warm."

" 'People like me'?" I quoted.

"Why do you think I started calling you Shadow Boy?"

"Aside from my awesome good looks?"

"Standards must have seriously gone down if _you're_ good-looking."

Ouch. That hurt. "You're so cheerful today, Demon Girl."

She snorted and stood up. "C'mon, Your Ugliness. Time to start training."

"Training?"

"Yup. Me 'n Violet get to teach you how not to get yourself and everyone killed next time we run into a bunch of Trackers. And since we're here, we can work on your speed."

"Speed. Right. Got it." I stood up, dusting off my jeans.

"Okay. Your speed is easy to…start, I guess you could say. The hard part is not running into things or overshooting stuff." She motioned for me to run up the hill. "It takes a few tries, but it's the easiest thing you'll learn."

And this is the part that made me feel like an idiot. Why the hell did I ever listen to Alex?

I took off, wind blowing around me and filling my ears. I was running faster then I ever had.

God it was great.

Then…_BAM!_

I hate trees.

I laid there for a little bit, my face hurting like hell and listening to Alex's cackling in the background.

She must've run over to me, because she was there in a flash. "That never gets old."

I just groaned.

More cackling. "Aw, did the big, bad Shadow elemental get hurt?"

"That's my line."

"Then howsabout you getting up?"

I sighed and picked myself up.

"There we go! Now try it again!" Alex said cheerfully.

I stared at her.

"Yup, you gotta do it again." All she needed was a whip and some badass outfit. This would have been much awesomer and probably a lot more painful.

I took off. It was pretty much a repeat.

_BAM!_

These trees are going to die. I hope Gaia doesn't mind.

"Again," Alex told me, grinning.

_BAM!_

God dammit.

"And again."

_BAM!_

"One more time…"

_BAM!_

"This is so amusing! Again!"

This time, I actually didn't hit anything.

"Yeah! Take that--"

_BAM!_

I think Alex almost died laughing. "That…" she gaped in between laughs. "was…freaking…priceless!"

I rubbed my face. "This is getting old."

"But it's so amusing!"

"Shut up."

"Go again."

I looked at her.

"You heard me."

I took off again.

And get this: _I DIDN'T RUN INTO ANY TREES!_

Alex looked slightly disappointed, "You know, most people usually run into a few more trees. This is very depressing."

I grinned evilly at her. "Race you to the Flock?"

She cackled. "You're goin' down Shady Boy."

We raced up the hill, me making some seriously narrow dodges, Alex seeming to dance around every tree. Very annoying.

She ran ahead of me, her feet looking like they never touched the ground. I poured on the speed, because I was _not_ losing to Demon Girl.

I think that sentence jinxed me. She beat me there by about five feet, sliding in the camp and cackling madly. "Epic fail, Shadow Boy, epic fail."

Cue glare. I might have a little respect for her after the whole fight thing, but that didn't mean I liked her.

I was fixing to deliver this badass move to slid in behind Alex.

_BAM!_

People. Will. Die.

* * *

**Hopefully this shall appease some of you crazy people.**


	19. Goddamn Lightning: Fang & Alex

**Random Stuff:**

**This isn't weird…**

**So you know that one bloody Fanging mcawesomesause FanFiction called Diary of a Lovesick Mutant by Phoenix Fanatic (lovingly called DOALM)?**

**Fang's real name is Alex. The irony kills me.**

**Question: One of my random online friends and I got into a debate about people's ages. So she wanted me to ask you guys how old you thought I was. Whoever guesses right gets…something. I dunno. Maybe randomly put into this story. -shrugs-**

* * *

The next couple of days were…interesting, to say the least.

They were also fun and miserable too, somehow.

Fun because I got my revenge on the trees, learned some badass Shadow moves, and didn't run into another tree.

Miserable because of the way Alex and Violet taught.

For example: Shadow elementals don't need to breathe underwater (there's some weird reason why you have to breath on land but not in water. Just go with it).

But, you know, seeing as how I was used to the air-in-my-lungs idea, I kinda panicked about the whole thing.

So, to teach me how to get used to it, Alex and Violet would randomly shove me into rivers, ponds, etc.

Here's how one of those went…

We'd been flying to Arizona (crap crap crap) for a few days, taking it slow and easy because Alex and Violet were teaching me along the way, the rest of the guys helping out where they could.

We stopped for a bit, and the others started talking about what we were going to get to eat.

Unbeknownst to me, because I was too busy thinking about food, we were standing right by a pond. Which just so happened to be deep enough for a certain newbie Shadow elemental to be thrown into.

I was standing there, thinking about bacon and nachos, when Alex's foot hit my side and sent me flying into said pond.

…

I now officially hate ponds. They're so innocent looking at first, but then some evil Demon girl'll slam her new red shoes into your side, and they're sadistic little water bunnies (bunnies…don't _even_ get me started on bunnies).

Hallebaconlujah for me, I remembered at the last second to stay down, or they'd just keep doing this over and over again to me.

So I sat there in the bottom of the pond, half holding onto a rock to keep me in place, drumming on my fingers.

Twenty seconds later, Violet stuck her hand in the water and gave me a thumbs up. I stood up, took a deep breath, then climbed out of the water and glared at my sister and her crazy friend.

"Okay, really? Do you have to dunk me in a pond?"

Alex nodded cheerfully. "Yup! Otherwise, you'd know and you'd be ready. So, until you learn to control your breathing stuff, we're gonna sneak attack you like ninjas and dunk you in the water."

Well…it sorta made sense, but Alex's insanity made it a bit weird.

"In other words, yes, we have to," Violet said, patting Alex's head. "Ignore her ninja explanation."

"But they're _ninjas_! They _can't _be ignored, not if you know where they are!" Alex argued. By the rolling of Gaia's eyes, I figured this was one of the many old arguments these guys had. They have more inside fights then Max and…

Never mind. Forget I just thought about _her_. Moving on.

Violet opened her mouth to snap something back when Skye--excuse me, Skylar--decided to step in.

"Ladies, please! Violence is not the answer! Stop the madness! Purple cows!"

There were several reactions to this:

Violet--"_Ladies_?! Ooh, you're dead."

Gaia--"They were not purple! Get that through your think skull! The only reason I said purple was because it was the only thing I could think of at the moment!"

Thor--"Violence isn't the answer because it's the question. _Pain_ is the answer."

Alex--"_Madness_? THIS. IS. SPARTA!"

I sighed.

Skylar grinned. "Man, I love this Flock. You guys are so easy to distract."

And with that, he sliced his hand through the air in front of him and knocked them all back into the pond.

I cackled.

**Alex POV:**

After Gibbs slapping Skye, we took off to a place that was quite possibly Heaven on Earth.

Hardee's. Home of the mushroom and Swiss burger. The food of the gods. Well, that, bacon, and Longhorn steaks.

Anyways, we ate at Hardee's, mentally scarring the poor woman who brought us our food with our horrible table manners.

When we finished, we hit the skies again, soaring around, as about as relaxed as we ever get.

"Hey, Fang, now's a good time to practice on your super-air-speed," Violet said cheerfully.

He ignored her. Poor guy. I almost felt sorry for him. _Almost_.

"Aw, c'mon," I told him. "There's no trees to run into, no ponds to be thrown in…it'll be okay!"

Fang glared at me. I gave him my best air headed smile. He looked away, muttering something.

"Don't be a chicken," Thor said, flying over and whacking him with a silver wing. "We've all had to do it before."

"Hey, maybe he is part chicken!" Skye yelled excitedly.

Gaia stared at him. "Skye…there's no such thing as black chickens."

He frowned at her. "That was very racist of you."

"Was not!"

"HE'S A GANGSTA CHICKEN! RESPECT HIS BLACKNESS BEFORE HE GOES ALL GHETTO ON YOU!"

"He's not black!"

"He's got _inner_ gangsta-ness. It's why he wears black all the time."

"He wears black because he's _emo_!"

"I AM NOT EMO!" Fang yelled.

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE A GANGSTA CHICKEN!" Thor and Skye both shouted back.

I sighed. "Guys, he's not a gangsta chicken. He's not even emo."

"_Fin_--" I cut Fang off.

"He's a wanna-be emo."

Cue silence.

"And just what does a wanna-be emo do?" Violet asked cautiously.

I winked at her. "They dye their hair with Sharpies and cut themselves with red markers."

More silence. Fang was fuming, dark tendrils of Shadow flying off of him.

I smirked. I love being me. Well, most of the time.

"Wait a minute!" Everyone looked over at Thor, who looked very depressed.

"What?" Gaia asked, looking concerned.

"Fang can't be a gangsta chicken! He can't rap!"

We thought this over.

Skye sighed. "R.I.P. The Gangsta Chicken. May the nachos forever reside with him." He and Thor bowed their heads.

And people say _I _make them wonder if they live in an asylum. Pshaw.

Continuing on.

We were maybe about half-way to Arizona when the sky started getting darker.

_Please don't storm, please don't storm, please don't storm,_ I thought to myself.

I'd been praying so hard I didn't notice the Lightning around my hands. But then a soft humming reached my ears as it rose to my forearms, and out of the corner of my eye I saw strands of my hair--which was quickly turning silver.

Cue groan.

Thor looked back at me, probably because he could tell there was going to be a storm, and smiled sadly. "Sorry Alex."

"Not your fault," I grumbled.

The other looked back, curious, and saw the Lightning streaks.

Gaia sighed and angled herself downward and dropped like a rock. Guess she was looking for a cave.

Violet somehow managed to unzip her backpack and grab the small bag inside without spilling everything. She chucked it to me just as I wrestled my new shoes of my feet and tossed them to her. Then I undid the straps of my backpack, slid it off my shoulders, and threw it to her as well.

Suddenly Gaia shot out of the sky, heading towards us. "There's a clearing over here that should keep us dry. There's another, smaller one not to far away that'll hide Alex."

"Thus begins this gay storm," I muttered as a few drops of rain started falling.

Gaia told me where to go, and we all zipped off to our camps or whatever.

When I landed, I took off my wicked jacket and T-shirt, then slipped on my very old, lightning bolted tank top and sweatshirt. I let go of my usual appearance--short hair, no scars. Without the use of my shape-shifting stuff, I had long, elbow length hair, just a few shades darker than the bright red flame it normally was (though it was now sliver, thanks to the storm). I pulled it into a braid and let it hang off my shoulder. The scars came back--reminders of assholes and dickheads.

Rain poured down just then, so I flicked on my hood, sat under a tree, and drew my knees up to my chest.

The minutes seemed to drag by like a fat-a pregnant elemental with constipation and really bad cramps.

I put my head on my knees and groaned at the strange mental image.

_Crack!_ Lightning boomed overhead, as did my own Lightning. It surged a few feet in the air with a snarl, then slammed back into me.

A sharp stab of pain momentarily blinded me, black spots dancing around my eyes.

It happened the same way with every roar of the Lightning. Add that to the rain, and after a little while I was feeling like the elemental I just described above--but without the whole pregnant constipation thing. Whatever.

Then there came another noise. A small snap and a quiet curse.

I lifted my head, instantly alert, looking to my right where the noise had come from.

He came out then.

If I'd had the energy, I would have done something. Strangled him. Kick him in the balls. Choked him to death. I dunno. _Something_.

"Hello, Allie. Long time no see," Shadow said, sitting down across from me.

My emotions fluttered. Our conversation and my emotions went something like this:

Contempt. "I wish that restraining order I sent in a while ago would come through. Then maybe you might stop stalking me."

He grinned darkly. "Alexandria, you'll never get rid of me."

Annoyance. "I will if I kill you. Think of all the possibilities."

"But then you'd have no one to take your anger out on. You'd become a time bomb, just like Layla did."

More annoyance. "I have the Schools, pretty much the entire world, and Victoria Secret. You're not so special as to be the only object of my fury."

"What about your new friend? Is he an object too?"

Confusion. "You mean Fang? The guy who knocked you out the last time we went back to what I must mockingly call home?" I asked smugly.

Shadow glowered, hate shining in his eyes. I have to say, I didn't despise Fang as much as I normally did in that moment. I would say I kinda liked him, but that was pushing it. _Really_ pushing it.

"He got lucky. Next time I see him, I break his face." Shadow snapped.

Panic. "How do I know you didn't send some friends after them? That they're not being strangled right now?"

He watched me for a second. "I swear that no one is there, and that no one is coming after them."

Hesitation. "Fine. Why the hell are you here?"

Shadow smirked. "To do what any mortal enemy would. Gloat, torture you, cause you pain, things like that. And what better time to do so then in a storm, when you're at your weakest?" The dark grin that was Shadow's trademark appeared. "So tell me, how's your hunt for Sammy?"

Pure, mindless fury. "You know where she is." It wasn't a question.

"Of course. I know where Artemis and Apollo are too."

"Where. Are. They." I snarled, clenching my fists.

"I'm sure you'd love to know, darling, but--"

I jumped to my feet. "Don't you _dare_ call me darling! Don't you dare call me _anything_! You tell me where they are right now, or so help me I will--" Lightning roared. I fell down and cried out.

Shadow stood over me, dark grin still in place. "You're not in a position to be making threats, _sweetie_," he said, heavily emphasizing on the sweetie. "Besides, you know where they are. You're just too much of a coward to do anything about it."

He kicked me in the head, hard, flipping me over so I was facing him. "You don't love any of them. You never love anyone but yourself. You disgust me."

I grinned shakily. "Yet you still did everything they said, even when that meant--"

_Bam! _Another kick, this time in my stomach. I almost threw up. "Shut UP!" he yelled.

I cackled. "Make me, Shady boy. You couldn't back then, so what makes you think you can now?"

A punch this time. I think he enjoys hurting people when they're down. "You'll never find Samantha. Or the twins. I'll make sure of it."

"I hope you die in a corner without bacon." I would have said something more badass, like 'I'm coming for you' or 'I'll be back', but it was just to clichéd. Besides, bacon is total badass.

He glared at me, the mud stained, bloody, Lightning surrounded teenage girl.

"I look forward to killing you, honey."

Then I gave the grin that was just as much my trademark as Shadow's grin. "Not if I kill you first, pal."

* * *

**I love Alex and Shadow. Even if Shadow's pretty twisted. He amuses me.**


	20. Racing: Fang

**For those stabbing pins into a voodoo doll of me, relax--karma has taken care of it for you. I fell off a horse, and am now enjoying several brusies, scraps, and cuts. ;)**

**

* * *

**

Fang POV:

When the storm ended, a furious but tired looking Alex came back.

Alex walked into the clearing, eyes flashing, silver streaks twisted into her hair, shoulders slumped. Violet chucked a water bottle at her, and she just barely caught it. She slid down in front of one of the trees, head back against it, legs propped up in front of her.

"What's the matter?" Gaia asked, tilting her head to the side.

"We need to leave," Alex said, ignoring the question.

"Why?"

"Because," was her only answer.

"You won't be able to fly for very long," Violet pointed out, watching the red head.

"I'll live. We just need to move. Now."

Silence.

"You saw Shadow, didn't you?"

Everyone looked at Violet, who was still staring at Alex.

The two of them had a staring contest, but then Alex sighed, slouching down a little more. "Yeah."

Thor zipped up his bag, and Gaia's. Gaia grabbed hers, then made sure everyone else's was ready.

I looked over at Violet. "How'd you know?"

She gave Alex a smug look. "Because I know her. I know her better than anyone," she said proudly.

Alex rolled her eyes. "Ditto, shorty."

"That's debatable," Skylar said. "For instance, I doubt you know that she--"

"Skye? Shut up," Violet told him, blushing slightly.

Alex grimaced. "Please, spare me the horny details. I've already been mentally scarred by you two more times than I care to remember."

Skylar cackled, and Violet's face just got redder.

I shook my head. I was going to ignore this. I could ignore this. It'd be easy.

Then the images took over my mind.

"I NEED BLEACH!" I yelled, eyes closed really tight, fingers clawing at the lids.

I started a chain reaction.

"HOLYFREAKINGiPODSOFDOOM!" Alex screamed.

I'm not sure what Gaia and Thor were screaming about over there, but I'm sure it was just as strange as the rest of us.

But karma wasn't done yet.

Violet had been drinking some water, and our tortured screams made her choke on it.

"What the--" choke, choke, choke. "Fang?"

That brought Thor out of his misery. "What the Fang?"

Skylar seemed pretty interested too. "Hmmm…think of the possibilities…"

Thor cackled. "MotherFangers I'm awesome!"

"No you're not, dude, don't lie."

…

WTF?

"Shut the Fang up, Skye!"

"Go to Fanging hell, Thor!"

"I hope you Fanging die in a corner without a knife!"

"I hope you Fanging die in a Fanging box with a Fanging Edward Cullen fan!"

My name has been violated. This can not be allowed to continue. This. Is. Wrong.

"WILL YOU SHUT THE FANG UP?" I yelled.

…Wait a minute.

Aw hell.

Skylar and Thor started cackling again, and I groaned.

"This is Fanging awesome! Now we don't have to say freaking or fricking or frigging! We can say Fanging!"

I opened my eyes to glare at them.

Alex snorted from where she was sitting. "And people say _I'm_ the crazy one. Yeah. Totally."

I wonder what would happen if I threw something at her. She'd probably go all Mrs. Dodds on me and turn into a Fury. She did look remarkably like one.

An image of Alex popped up in my brain: her red hair plastered to her face, T-shirt and shorts glued to her skin from the water we'd been fighting in, eyes bright, smiling.

Okay, so, maybe not _all_ the time. But there's no way in hell I'm admitting that.

After Skylar and Thor stopped laughing and joking around, we headed into the skies again.

The sun was setting, sending weird rays of random colors across the clouds. It was quiet, but not that ominous/clichéd 'a little too quiet' quiet. It was like twelve A.M. in a small town with no half-crazed dogs kind of quiet. Pretty much the only thing you could hear was the wind and that sounds of our wings.

Until Skylar decided to open his big mouth.

"So where the Fang we going?" he asked, almost shouting over the wind.

Violet and Alex looked at each other again. "Florence," they finally said.

Oh hell. That was near where Dr. M lived. And I was about eighty percent sure that Max and the Flock would be there.

It would be _great_ if somebody would just shoot me now (I'm kidding, guys. I would prefer not to be shot out of the sky and transformed into a blob of feathers and guts).

We hit Arizona as night started to fall, and it seemed to drag by below us, every mile we flew more like a foot or something like that. I blame Alex. She was flying pretty slow. 'Sides, it's nice to have someone to blame everything on.

Violet suddenly appeared above me, her wings gently brushing mine. I looked up. She pointed ahead of us, where I could see spots of colors. _Town_, she mouthed when I looked at her again, pointing down at Alex's drooping figure. I nodded, and she went to tell the others.

Again, I looked down at Alex. An idea hit me, and flew so I was hovering over her, my wings just barely hitting hers on the upward stroke, like Violet's had done to me a few seconds ago.

"Go away," she growled, but you could tell her heart wasn't in it.

"I'll race you to the town."

My challenge brought her up short.

"Race? Town? _What?_"

I rolled my eyes. "Aren't blonds supposed to be the dumb ones?"

"So funny I forgot to laugh. Get to the point."

"We're staying at a town. I'll race you."

She was quiet. Score one for Fang, although I didn't get to burn her or anything. Darn.

"I get it. This is some weird form of payback for all those trees. And the ponds," she finally said.

"No," I spoke slowly, like I was talking to an idiot (which I was). "This is one of those things where I'm going to make you eat your words."

"Which would be…?"

"Something among the lines of 'You can't be me, Shady Boy!'"

"I'm the ginger head girl!" she said cheerfully.

Silence.

"_Any_ways, would you like to put the theory to the test?" I asked.

She thought for a few seconds. "You know what, Fang? You're on."

And with that, she put on a burst of speed I hadn't been expecting. It was a lot slower than her usual speed, but it was a start.

I poured on the speed and the race began.

* * *

"What are they doing?" Thor asked, watching as Alex suddenly tore past them, Fang right on her heels.

"I didn't think she'd have that much energy in her," Skye muttered.

"He probably got her mad or something. You know how Alex is." Gaia followed the two of them with her elementally heightened sight. "What do you think, Vi?"

Violet didn't answer. She was watching them race, the wind blowing back the sound of their laughter and the random taunts as Fang urged her to even faster speeds.

Actually, she wasn't watching _them_. She was watching something else: a black and red thread that wrapped around the two elementals, connecting them to each other, visible even from her angle.

Their soulmate bond.

* * *

Alex and I got stuck rooming together again.

But this time, it was better. And worse.

The two of us were flopped out on the beds, still trying to catch our breath from the race. I'd let Alex beat me, just so I wouldn't have to hear her complain and mutter and stuff.

A bunch of pops brought me out of my thoughts, and I looked over at Alex.

"Are you murdering inanimate objects over there?" I asked.

"In-an-i-mate. Four syllables. Smooth. And I'm only murdering bird-kid bones, thank you very much." She stood up. "I'm gonna get a shower."

"Have fun?"

Alex rolled her eyes at me, and, well, got a shower.

She came out a few minutes later, cursing, one hand tangled in her hair.

I stared. I'd actually never seen her hair that long. Must've been the shape-shifting power Violet had told me about.

She sat down on her bed, still cursing, yanking a brush through the blob on her head.

And getting it tangled in it too.

"Here." I stood up, deciding to save her from the blob, and grabbed the brush, slowly working it through.

Awkward moment number one: Me voluntarily brushing Alex's hair, and Alex letting me.

I will admit, though, that I kind of like Alex's hair. Up close, it was actually different shades of red, gold, and brown, not just the Gryffindor color scheme it looked like. It was really think and long, but also soft and, as weird as it sounds, warm.

After I finished detangling her hair, she grabbed it and starting braiding it, her fingers flying.

Awkward moment number two: Me massaging the spot between Alex's wings with Alex's head on my shoulder.

I have no idea how that happened. I don't think either of us realized it, not until a few minutes later.

When we did, both of us jumped up, nearly tripping over the bed as we did.

We stared at each other.

"Erm…I'm gonna…get a shower," I said.

She nodded. "Yeah. I'll just…yeah. Anyways."

After the awkward incident and my shower, I slowly opened the door and prayed that Alex was either asleep or faking it.

Thankfully, there was no need.

Alex was flopped out on the bed again, her head pillowed on her arm, a sketch pad underneath her hand.

I made sure she was asleep, and then looked at the drawing.

It must have been from her memory or something: you could see the tips of her wings, a few strands of her bright red hair, and the edges of her shoes.

The background was blurry, like the only thing she could see was the guy in front of her.

His wings were spread out, only visible because of the flickering tendrils of Shadows that Alex had outlined in gold. He looked furious, a weird kind of anger in his pure black eyes. Claws sprouted out of his knuckles, outlined in gold like the rest of the Shadows surrounding him. He had on a black T-shirt and jeans. His skin was olive-toned, and there were several scratches on him, all dripping black blood.

He was me.

I tried to ignore that as I read the writing beside my picture, written in a small, neat lettering:

**Can we pretend that airplanes**

**In the night sky**

**Are like shooting stars?**

**I could really use a wish right now**

**Wish right now**

**Wish right now**

I had no idea why she'd put that, so I looked back at my portrait thing.

Guess I had looked as creepy as Demon Girl.

* * *

**I'm sorry this was so boring and rushed--I'll make it up next chapter.**


	21. Oh Hell: Alex

**BAHAHA! I WENT TO WASHINGTON D.C. AND I MADE THIS CREEPY PREACHER GUY WHO WAS YELLING IN A MICROPHONE (JEEEEESSSSUUUSSS…sa sa sa sa…chu chu chu chu) TO TALK ABOUT BACON.**

**It. Was. Epic.**

**And please guys. Go be epic right now. Check out MaxRide101's profile on deviant ART (FreetoFly3733) and check out her art. Not only does she have awesome fanart for this crazed story, but she drew a dragon who's eyes are quite lickable, along with the ever so amazing Gollum that's holding a GFB (Glowing FangBurger, you ignorant peoples).**

* * *

**Alex POV:**

_Beeeeeeppppppp!_

That is the most unholy sound in the universe.

"Holy shit!" I yelled, attempting to jump up. Key word there: _attempt_. My legs were tangled up in the sheets, and I fell off the bed.

Then came the painful part.

"Jesus!"

_BAM!_

"GET OFF ME!"

Yeah. Fang fell on top of me.

"What the?" he said, probably still half-asleep. Therefore, I kneed him in the balls. Poor guy.

"I hate you Alex," he groaned, rolling over and looking extremely uncomfortable.

"That's great. I don't like you either."

_Beeeeeeeeeeeppppp!_

I sprung up and slammed my fist down on that goddamned machinery, and I shattered and splattered it all into little bitty pieces (I love Ludacris).

"Wasn't that a little over kill?" Fang asked. "Like kicking me?"

"No. Both were completely necessary in the current situation," I said, flopping back down on my bed.

"Whatever." Fang rolled his eyes, flopping out on his bed too.

We were both almost asleep again when there was an extremely loud knock on the door.

"Go away…" I mumbled, but got up and opened it, revealing an all-too happy Violet and black skies.

"Good morning! Wonderful day for a storm, isn't it?" She turned and pointed back behind her.

"Please tell it's not a thunderstorm."

"It's not! It's some kind of weird rain thingy. But no lightning, so you're safe. Have fun waking up?"

Wait a minute. "You set the alarm clock, didn't you?"

Violet grinned evilly. "Of course I did! Why wouldn't I?"

"I hate you Violet."

"That's great. I don't like you either."

Cue glare. "_And_ you were listening?"

"They have thin walls. How's Fang?"

"Annoyed," he said from behind me.

"I'm sorry," she said, and for a second I thought she meant it. "Here's your notebook back, Alex."

She was dead. I jerked it out of her hands and was about to impressively storm out of there. Instead, I ran into Fang.

Violet cackled, Fang rolled his eyes again, and I blushed, almost running to where my bag was.

"Breakfast started if you guys are hungry. Oh, and Alex? I made a few alterations in your picture." Before I could run back to murder her, she left.

Warily, I opened my poor notebook and flipped through the pages. There were several of the flock-Gaia asleep in a tree, Skye and Thor throwing plastic knives at each other, Violet playing an air guitar-and a couple others of just stuff.

The only one she'd changed was the drawing of Fang as a Shadow elemental. Instead of a blurry background (which I wasn't proud of in the first place), there was something far worse.

Bright. Pink. Hearts.

They were _everywhere_. No place was sacred in my drawing.

I sat there, jaw almost touching the floor, looking at the poor thing in disgust and horror.

Naturally, Fang decided to enter at that moment. I was still too mentally scarred to move, so _of course_ he saw what Violet had done.

"Hm. Guess Skylar and Thor were right," was all he said.

That snapped me out of my horror. "What did they say?"

He shrugged on his coat, face impassive. "That you liked me."

I gave him my best unenthusiastic and sarcastic look, then said what is most likely my favorite line in the world: "I want you, I need you, oh baby, oh baby."

That line is epic.

Fang wasn't fazed or anything. He just zipped up his bag, slung it over his shoulder, then gave me a once-over (hey that rhymes!). "Sorry. I don't date psycho stalker girls."

Aw. That made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside.

I slung my bag over my shoulder as well. "I don't date emo gangster chickens. Guess that makes us even."

I'm pretty sure I made him feel just as warm and fuzzy inside as a prep attacking you with a chainsaw and pink nail polish.

* * *

Breakfast was boring, aside from me cracking a few perverted jokes at Violet's expense, so let's move on to more interesting events.

The School was ridiculously east to find, sending our already high paranoia levels even higher. Gaia found an all-too convenient window, and we climbed through, braced for the worst.

"Oh, this isn't good," I muttered, looking around.

You know, considering this is one of the Schools, you'd think there'd be people running around, mutants in cages, trying to escape notice-or just escape.

There was nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. _Nothing_.

"So…now what?" Thor asked.

Violet and I looked at each other, coming to a silent agreement as we did. "We'll look around," she said. "Make sure there's nothing here."

Skye opened his mouth, most likely to ask what our 'plan' was, when Fang and I tore off down the hallway.

I heard the flock follow us after a few choice curses, mainly consisting of iPods, bacon, and bombs, but I tuned them out. Fang had seen the same thing I had-someone was here. Both of us were dead set on catching whoever it was.

I will admit this: not only was the person ahead of us smart, but they were Fanging _fast_ little suckers.

Suddenly the figure turned and raced back towards us, then made a left. I overshot, and fell, but somehow Fang managed not to and hauled me up, already after the guy. How a newb had more control over me already, I had no idea.

Anyfroodles, around that time, the guy made a fatal mistake: he led us into a super big hallway thingy.

Now, usually super big hallway thingy means big enough to have a full scale bomb war with a certain dark haired mutant whose name starts with a V, ends with a t, and the middle letters are i-o-l-e. Here, however, it meant big enough for two crazed bird-kids to fly and figure out what the Fang was going on (I really need to stop using Fang's name as a verb. It's creeping me out).

We caught up to him easily in the air, and Fang whacked him with a Shadow ball thingy.

Jeez. Why the hell didn't we think of that _before_ we ran three miles trying to catch him?

The guy hit the ground, groaning. He was about Skye's height, sandy blond hair, emerald green eyes, semi-tan skin. His nose was to big for his face, though, and he looked kind of nerdy. "Can't you guys give me a break?"

"Hell no, nerd boy." I lifted him up by his jacket and pinned him against the wall with my forearm just as the flock ran in.

"I'm going to ask you something, okay? If you don't answer seriously, I'll break your neck. Deal?"

He nodded.

"Do you know a boy named Shadow? He's about your height, really pale, black hair and black eyes?"

Another nod.

"Oh goody. Does he have three kids with him? Two of them are girls, one of them a boy, all three elementals?"

He hesitated. I pressed my smoking arm against his neck and gave him my best 'I will _so _kill you if you don't work with me' look.

He nodded frantically.

"Where. Are. They," I growled, more smoke floating off me, my eyes burning.

"Right behind you, Alexandria."

I whirled around, just a split second after the rest of the Flock did. The boy I'd been interrogating started oh-so attractively sucking in breath, then rolled on his side. I ignored him. I had bigger issues on my mind.

Standing in front of me was Shadow, my own personal hell, and a group of Trackers, ready to back him up.

We were outnumbered. Again.

"Son of a bit-" I started to say, but Shadow cut me off. "Now, now, Alex. You shouldn't cuss in front of kids."

With that, he snapped his fingers and a Tracker walked out beside him, holding something that was fighting against him.

"Mommy!"

Holy son of a goddamn bacon stealer.

* * *

**So, yeah. SUMMER'S HERE! HALLEBACONLUJAH!**


	22. Battles, Cowards, and Fates: Alex & Fang

**HAHA! Nobody guessed the music reference in the last chapter! -cackles- TAKE THAT! :DDDDDD**

**Advance apology: So, this is a really long chapter. And I think the ending's kind of boring. But still. At least I updated fast! :D**

* * *

**Alex POV:**

"_Mommy!_"

That voice broke my heart. I wanted to cry. All I could do was stare at the four year old girl in front of me. Her golden hair had been cut short, to her ears, looking almost like Alice from the _Twilight _movie. Her eyes, so much like mine, were wide with dark lashes, and she had this pale-honey colored skin. She was thin, but not in the weird I-puke-after-I-eat kind of thin. She was tall for her age, but that happens when you're a bird kid.

"Sammy…" I whispered, not really believing it was her. I hadn't seen her since…well, I don't know.

Shadow gave this weird little chuckle. "Reunited at last. The child and the wanna-be mother."

I could have torn his head off in that moment.

I _did_ lunge at him for that very purpose, but both Violet and Fang stopped me.

Fury made my vision turn red, smoke drifted off my skin, and the edges of my fingernails began to form claws.

Shadow stepped a little closer, studying Fang. "So you're the boy who knocked me out," he said.

Fang stared him down, his face emotionless. "And you're the creepy bipolar stalker boy. Now that we've stated the obvious…" Fang, in a total badass-looking move at the time, raised an eyebrow and gave this sarcastic 'I'm going to laugh when your face gets _smoosh_ed in by the red-head who's arm I'm currently holding because we can't let your face get _smoosh_edin at present time'. (_Smoosh_ is such a cool made up word. We have to make it stand out.)

The two boys had a stare off, and it lasted so long I thought we'd end up staying here forever. So, unable to stop myself from at least _trying_ to hurt him, I kicked Shadow as hard as I possibly could.

One of the joys of being an elemental? Having fast reflexes. Shadow was on me in seconds, and we were fighting.

Sounds of other fighting reached me, but I wasn't paying attention. I solely focused on Shad, determined to win this fight.

We circled, waiting for the other to make the first move. He lunged, aiming for my face, but I dodged and grabbed his arm, throwing him down on the floor. My foot connected solidly with his stomach several times, and then I stomped on his face. Or, rather, I tried to. He whacked my legs out from under me and drag me back up by my hair, slamming my face into the wall over and over again until I managed to kick him where the sun don't shine.

Both of us were bleeding pretty heavily by that point. Some of it was dripping down into my right eye, my old scar reopening.

Shadow grinned when he saw that, though he wasn't in much better shape. "I remember the day I gave you that."

So did I, all to well. Fury ran through me, and we were off again, pounding each other with blows, letting instinct take over. Fire and Shadows rained everywhere, lighting the room in a dark red color-like a puddle of blood.

I got behind him and clapped my hands over his ears with as much force as I could, and he cried out, then grabbed my arms and did the same trick I'd done to him, throwing me over his shoulder. But he'd done it the wrong way and I was up on my feet within seconds.

Not fast enough. He tackled me to the ground, and every punch carried years worth of resentment and anger.

Fire wrapped around my hands, and I shoved him off me, standing up slowly. Black spots swam before my eyes, and I spat a huge blob of blood out of my mouth. My breath came in fast little gasps, my poor T-shirt almost ripped to shreds. Shadow's shirt was the same way, two distinct hands prints where I had burned through his clothes.

A Tracker smashed into me at that point, but I broke his neck. I hate killing people. Unfortunately, they never give me a chance to prove that.

Sammy suddenly screamed. I whirled, forgetting everyone else in that moment.

The little girl screamed again, looking at Fang. I would have too, if I was her.

He was covered in blood, several dead Trackers spread around him, claw marks showing what had happened. He winced as Sammy's shrill voice reached his ears, trying to calm her down. All it did was backfire and make her freak out more.

"Sammy!" I yelled, starting towards her. "Don't-"

Too late.

Her hands flew up, Light flaring out of them, wrapping around Fang-something that was deadly to a Shadow.

"SAMMY!" I roared, running flat out now, panicking. "STOP! STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!"

My voice finally reached her, and the Light was gone as suddenly as it came. I raced over to where Fang was, dropping down and checking his pulse. It was there, strong and somewhat steady. I breathed a sigh of relief, wondering in the back of my mind when he'd become so important.

I waved my hand in front of his face. "Fang? This would be a great time to develop a sense of humor and, like, attempt to scare the crap out of me or something dramatically funny."

One of his eyes was swollen shut from someone's fist, but the other opened slowly. "Yeah, I think I'll pass." His voice was hoarse, but he seemed okay-aside from, you know, his cuts and stuff.

Sam ran over, looking relieved and scared at the same time. "I'm so sorry! I just…you…" she trailed off, tears welling up in those amber eyes. Fang gave her his standard half-grin. "S'okay. I probably looked as scary as your mom when there's no bacon around." I glared at him, but it made Sammy relax some and grin back.

_BAM!_

Well, Shadow was back.

The tackle sent the two of us flying over Fang and almost slamming us into a wall. Punches were exchanged again, stronger now that we'd had a short little break. One of them caught me in the cheek, and I saw Violet, Fang, Gaia, Skye, and Thor all standing in a circle around Sammy, trying to hold off the Trackers.

That's where everything fell apart.

The Trackers broke through the line, grabbing Sammy and retreating in a matter of seconds. The flock attacked again, taking a few of the guys down, but it was already too late.

I'd just almost gotten my daughter back.

And now she was gone.

"NO!" I screamed. I threw a blind chop at Shadow, hearing it connect with his face, and ran, slipping on blood.

My family was racing after them, like me. I followed them, still behind, running as fast as I could.

But then they turned a corner, and something in me kept telling me to go straight. I stopped for a second, confused, but as the urge got stronger, I continued along the hallway ahead of me.

_This would be faster on four feet_, that same voice told me, and I morphed into a wolf without question.

Later, a flicker of movement caught my eye. Turning, I saw a group of Trackers-and scared little four year old girl.

There was a railing in front of me, and I jumped on it, morphing back to psycho mom as I did, and flung myself into the air. My wings unfolded of their own accord, propelling me.

If this had been a movie, or a book with a decent summary, I would have gracefully glided down and simply grabbed my daughter, gotten my family, and we would have skipped off into the sunset, happily ever after.

This was not a movie. This wasn't a book with a decent summary. This was the _real_ world.

My wings folded, and I crashed into them, taking down as many as I could. I think I broke a few people's arms, but that was okay. I kept them busy until the flock joined me…

…With Shadow right behind them. He just couldn't stay away, could he?

I ignored him for the moment-Violet and I were currently to busy trying not to be killed.

Which is why I _didn't_ see him press a small, shiny blue button on the wall beside him. Why I _didn't_ see the reinforcements come up behind him. Why I almost _didn't _see Sammy being carried back to him, unconscious. And by the time I had noticed everything else, we were pretty much screwed anyway.

* * *

**Fang POV:**

The Trackers quit fighting us and ran back to Shadow, and the flock automatically made a line, all of us together. We started back up slowly, wanting a wall against out backs (less surprises that way).

By that time, there was about half a football field between us and the sadistically evil peoples. So, in accordance (no, not with the prophecy) with being dimwitted melodramatic Trackers, they start running towards us.

Violet blew on her nails and polished them on her shoulder. "I got this," she said, bouncing forward and clearing her throat. "JOIN US, AND RECEIVE A FREE TOASTER OVEN!"

Well then. I hope insanity doesn't run in the family (though it would explain a lot of things).

Apparently, however, some of the Trackers were just as confused as I was about Violet's random declaration, because they stopped and stared at her. After a few seconds though, they were after us again.

My sister looked slightly depressed at that, until Gaia walked up beside her. "Nah, _I _got this." She cleared her throat, and flung an arm out to the right. "FREE BACON OVER THERE!"

…Nothing.

Everyone was appalled. "They just ignored the promise of bacon!" Skylar yelled. If looks could kill, everyone would have died.

Violet glared in their general direction. "Well, if they want to die horrible, painful deaths at the hands of a pissed off Alex, it's their choice."

I swear, those two plan every conversation they have out or something. Alex lunged out of nowhere with this weird deadly grace, two metal bars in her hands, clashing with the Trackers in the middle of our half of a football field room.

The flock grinned at each other, then raised their arms like they were about to throw something. A glowing orb **(Haha, GFB Max!)** appeared in their hands, each the color of their element. They threw them at the exact same time, all yelling "A LEXANDRIA, I CHOOSE YOU!"

That was an epic moment for a Pokemon reference.

Then we joined Alex the Pokemon (she needs a better name than Alexandria though…) in the fight.

Honestly, I barely remember any of it. I probably should have, since it was almost the biggest fight I'd ever been in. I remember small, useless things.

Shadow wasn't fighting. He was standing in a corner, Sammy in a heap at his feet. Alex and Violet were almost invincible together with those bars (Demon Girl had given one to my sister). Skylar and Thor were really good too, but they didn't have the weapons. Gaia wasn't physically fighting at the moment-she was pulling some tricks with her powers. It was starting to take a toll on her, though: sweat dripped down her face, and she was leaning against a wall.

We were outnumbered. We had to get out of there before we got killed.

The rest of the flock had the same idea-except Alex. She was trying to beat all of them, trying to get to her daughter. Truthfully, it wasn't working out too well for her. Adrenaline and anger can only get people so far.

I thought about dragging her out of here, but Shadow solved that problem for me. Making sure Alex saw him, he opened some weird freaky panel in the wall and pulled out a gun. Then he pointed it straight at Sammy.

Alex went completely still, focused on the coward.

"You're going to leave now, Alexandria. If you don't…well, you won't like the consequences." He acted like he was talking to one of those people under a trance, or a seriously stereotypical blond (if Max and Alex are twins, wouldn't that mean that at some stage in her life, Alex was a blond too? Think of all the possibilities).

Back to the point.

Shadow and Alex watched each other for the longest time. Then, slowly, she nodded.

Shadow let out a piercing whistle and all the Trackers fell back to him, though you could tell they were itching to kill us.

The flock looked confused, seeing as how the Trackers covered up the gun Mr. Coward was holding.

Demon Girl started backing up, not turning around, motioning for the others to leave as well. Her face was stone cold, revealing nothing. Her body was tense, and blood trickled down her cheek from her scar.

Nothing happened as we left. No attacks, no people jumping down from railings and crashing into us, no free bacon, nothing.

We were about half a mile from the School when it exploded. We watched, which was the only reason we saw the figures on either side of it.

"Why would they blow it up?" Violet asked.

"Because we knew where it was? And we attacked them?" Gaia sounded unsure.

"Who cares," Alex muttered. She was watching the School fall to pieces with that cold expression. Her claws were out, eyes a bright red. Then suddenly she slammed her fist into a tree, and her façade broke.

For a small instant, I saw a different Alex-emotions flooded her face: pain, misery, guilt. I thought she was going to cry, but then the Demon Girl came back, the one with the heartless 'I've seen everything' look.

"Let's go," she growled.

"Where to, Your Majesty?" Okay, so, maybe I shouldn't be so sarcastic after all this, but still.

Her eyes met mine-they were icy, despite being a Fire elemental. "Anywhere that doesn't reek of coward. I'm getting a headache from it."

And then she just started walking off. "And I'm fine, Violet. Stop mind-bombing me."

"And all the best lies…" Violet muttered.

"They are told with fingers tied, so cross them tight," Gaia sang quietly from behind her.

* * *

**Alex POV:**

We headed into a town, though I don't remember the name of it. I wasn't really paying that much attention to anything.

Gaia had stopped us before we could go anywhere and made sure everyone was all nice and bandaged up. Fang changed shirts, so we didn't look quite so suspicious.

The flock had been walking down some street, trying to find a place to eat when someone suddenly grabbed my hand.

I whirled, fist clenched, ready to beat the bacon out of someone, expecting Trackers. Instead, there was an elderly lady, all wrinkled up and shriveled. Her long silver hair was in a limp ponytail, her skin grey and dead-looking. Veins showed clearly through it, scars danced around everywhere. Her hand was calloused, rough. She was short, only coming up to my elbow, but she was strong (I know this because she was currently yanking me back to where I'd come from).

But it was her eyes that surprised me the most. They were…strange, to say the least. The color was just as weird as the rest of her. Burnt gold-like the time Violet had painted her nails black and put a light bronze coat on them. They were bright, catching light and seeming to hold it there. They were reflective, too. I could clearly see everything ahead of me through those eyes.

"Come, child. You are misled." Her voice was soft, fragile-like. At the same time, it had an unwavering tone of authority and power in it.

"Who the heck _are_ you, woman?" I glanced back where the flock was, still unaware that I was being dragged away by one of the goddamn Fates from Greek mythology (though I doubt they looked this bad).

"That, I cannot tell you. What I can tell you is far more important than your idle curiosity."

"Idle curiosity? What is this, the fifteenth century? Nobody talks like that anymore." I desperately tried to escape her grasp. Holy bacon, she could have given the Hulk a run for his money.

"No, they do not. But many think it."

"That sounds suspiciously like Nicholas Cage in _National Treasure_. That's plagiarism, my dear Greek-looking kidnapper."

She stopped, right in the middle of the frigging road. "Maybe you are smarter than you look. How much do you know?"

"Know? I'm fourteen! According to the entire world, I don't know anything! Hell, according to about half the world, I shouldn't be _alive_!" Oh, maybe that wasn't the best thing to yell out. Strangely, though, nobody stared, or said anything.

That's it. I've entered the Twilight Zone. HolyfriggingiPodsofbaconydoom.

But Fate woman just cuffed me in the ear and kept walking, dragging me along with her. This continued until we reached the end of the street.

She let my wrist go, and I immediately started backing up. Something was just wrong here.

"I know where she is."

Okay, so, my idle curiosity became interested. "Who?"

And then she said the two words that would eventually get me in a big pile of cheese, more than once (ooh, foreshadowing): "Sammy Ride."

I turned to stare at her. "What the hell? I just frigging _saw_ her! I know where she is, too!" Guilt flooded me, and I looked down. "I just couldn't save her."

"Do you honestly think that her father would have kept her there if you knew where she was?"

Whoa.

I ran back to her, hauled her up by her shirt, and gave her my best 'don't-screw-with-me-or-I'll-kill-you' look. "Tell me where she is, _right now_, before I kill you."

Wrong move. Next thing I knew, Fate woman had me in a headlock.

"You are too impatient, too reckless. They will be your downfall, if you are not careful."

I growled. "Fine then. What do you want?"

She let me go again, but this time I stayed there, glaring her down. "You know where the girl is."

"Damn it! Everyone says that, and I have no goddamn clue where she is!"

Fate lady cocked her head to the side. "She is at home, of course."

For a second, I was confused. At home? I didn't have a home. Neither did she. How could she-

Oh hell. "You're not serious, are you? This would be a great time to develop a sense of humor and go along with me here."

Fate woman just smiled sadly. "Yes, Alexandria. You must return to your birthplace, the School you hate more than anything." She turned around and started walking off.

I probably would have run after her, to try and get some more info out of her, but, well, I was still frozen in place.

The School. _The _School. The one place that held every nightmare I had for my entire life.

I'd never been so scared before.

For how long I sat there, I have no idea. Time seemed meaningless at that moment. I was reliving my twelve years of hell at an agonizingly slow pace.

"Alex?"

The voice didn't break my bubble of torture, just kind of glanced off and got run over by a passing car.

I heard the conversation that followed, but it didn't register. It got run over too. Twice.

"C'mon, Ride, time to wake up and stop scaring the crap out of everyone."

_That _voice shattered my bubble.

Blankly, I looked up. Fang was standing there, watching me with the same dark eyes Violet had.

"What?" I asked, my voice cracking.

"You okay?"

That was such a weird question, coming from him. "Depends on what your definition of 'okay' is."

"Do you still hate me?"

"Oh, that's an easy question. Not only yeah, but hell yeah."

"She's fine." The statement wasn't directed at me. Violet and Gaia suddenly came out of nowhere.

"Jesus, Alex, what the heck was all that about?" Gaia asked, looking worried.

I stared at the two of them, my very best friends.

"The…well…" Son of a bacon-stealer. "They're back at the School."

They both shared WTF expressions. "Who is, honey? Which School?" Gaia stroked my hair, like that was supposed to make me feel better.

"Sammy. And Apollo and Artemis, probably. They're at our School."

The excitement from them was overwhelming. Note sarcasm.

* * *

**Haha! I bet you can't name the band or the name of the song mentioned in here. And I'm sorry if you thought it was boring.**


	23. Spilting Up: Alex POV

**So. I apologize for being slow. On the bright side, we're skipping to the Flex part of the story, and I went to a volleyball camp in Atlanta.**

**Kudos to MaxRideFreak for guessing the amazingness that is Paramore. Kudos as well to Mistress Freedom Requires a Battle Cry (one of my more insane and amazing reviewers) to knowing the song as well.**

**Side note: If anyone wants to join me (no, not on the Dark Side, though you're more than welcome to) on GoodReads and stalk the books I read, link's on profile.**

**Alex POV:**

Days passed.

In some ways they were better: no one chased us, there weren't any random fights with evil sadistic assholes, nobody got seriously hurt, and I discovered an awesome new song.

In others, they were worse: nonstop flying that left us kinda tired, never really completely full, the occasional thunderstorm.

And Fang. Always Fang.

I didn't know what was wrong with me. One time his hair got jacked up and I wanted to fix it, run my fingers through it and see if it was really as soft as it looked. When those rare half-smiles popped up, it took an effort not to grin. Flames shot through me when his eyes met mine.

It. Was. Ridiculous.

The two of us fought more in that week than in any other. Even the littlest things would set us off, and we weren't above throwing punches when it happened.

But there was one fight that towered over the rest. At the risk of sounding unoriginal, it changed everything.

The day started out depressingly normal. Got up, made sure everyone was alive, glared at the sky, and began to eat.

I'm not exactly sure what triggered _that_ fight-probably nothing but growing tension and our personalities.

They came out of nowhere, just as I was about to punch Fang.

I give them credit for being fast. One minute there was no one, next there were around fifteen Trackers crashing our camp. With guns. Because the iPods know we needed a challenge-especially since these were the newer, stronger versions.

"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" I yelled, pushing Fang back towards the trees, grabbing my pack and Violet as I did. "COME _ON_!"

We ran, since they'd blocked the air escape. Us Lightning elementals were somewhat slower, due to a massive storm that pushed even Thor's awesome control. A couple minutes later, we stopped, somewhat sure that we had enough time to make a plan.

"I've got an idea," Violet said.

I ran a hand through my hair, glancing back to make sure they Trackers weren't coming up behind us. "And what, pray tell, is this genius idea?"

She gave me a look that said my attitude wasn't helping. "We split up, of course."

"Split up? _That's_ your grand plan? Yeah, and if we do that, they'll capture half of us before we get three miles away and the others won't know about it until it's _too late_!"

Violet ignored my rare logic. "If we go in groups of two, that'll make five after each of us. Even if they did get close enough to catch us, that's better odds than fifteen to five." Okay, so, she had a point to.

"What if they _don't_ break up? What if they wanted you and Skye more than they wanted Thor and Gaia? You're basing this on the assumption that we're all of equal value to them. If we're not, we're screwed." The two of us were using a lot of 'what if's….

She shrugged. "If they want anybody, it'd be you and Fang. You because of Shadow and the fact that you're a Fire. Fang would probably be a goodwill gesture to another School, to make an alliance or something like that. Besides, the two of you are good fighters-you'd stand a better chance against more difficult odds than the rest of us. Face it, Alex, I've got the best plan here and it's just about our only option."

"It's still a risk."

"Everything's a risk."

Damn it. I hate it when she goes all Ranger's Apprentice on me. But sadly, I knew she was right.

Groaning internally, because I _knew_ how the groups would work out, I nodded. "Alright, we'll do it your way. We can meet back up at-"

"I vote Long Island," Gaia said.

"No way!" I half-yelled. "We're in freaking _Kansas_. Long Island is, like, six states away!"

"But it gives us plenty of time to shake them off, not to mention collect more information about Maine," she pointed out.

Damn.

"Maine?" Fang asked.

"It's the School we're headed to," Thor said. "The birthplace of one annoying red-head, her arch nemesis, and her daughter."

Fang opened his mouth to say something, looking confused, but we got interrupted by another one of my arch nemeses: the Trackers.

"I found them!" one yelled, and like in an epic battle movie, they charged at us, dancing through the trees.

I scowled. "Fine. Meet back up at the place at noon, statue of Prometheus. MOVE!"

We broke up, everyone already knowing (or having a really good guess) who was stuck with who. I saw Violet and Skye jump into the air, Gaia and Thor doing the sam on the other side of me.

Fang and I ran, feet pounding on the forest floor, arms pumping at our sides. We were practically flying, our breathing sounding almost deafening for some reason. Suddenly there was the sound of a gun being fired behind us and Fang tackled me mid-stride. The two of us fell, hitting the ground, rolling down a hill or something (insuring bruises or a really sore back tomorrow).

"Just what the hell was that for?" I asked when we finally stopped.

"Did you want to get shot? I'm sure they'll be happy to if you do," he snapped. I shoved him off me and looked at the top of the hill. The Trackers were starting down it, slipping and sliding like little kids at an ice skating rink. But there were only five. Hallelujah.

Fang and I shot off again, trying to get some more space between us and the others. Until we found the cliff.

"Fly?" Fang asked.

I shook my head. "They'll catch up to us then. Turn back around?"

He frowned. "We'd probably get shot. Think we can climb down?"

My answer was a scream as I fell, clutching my shoulder.

The sad thing about being able to sense elementals is that you can't always tell how far away from you they are. Because I got my shoulder (and part of my wing) sliced open by Shadow.

Frigging terrorist.

I think I heard he and Fang fighting, but I was too busy trying not to die to notice. Plus I was screaming, which was kind of blocking out any other noises.

_WHY WOULDN'T MY WINGS OPEN?_

This was low, even for Shadow. iPods, I was going to-

My wings unfurled suddenly, yanking me back in the air and pain flaring through my left side.

"Oh, _now_ you start flying," someone growled from behind me. I whirled (kind of) and saw Fang, dark wings outstretched and an annoyed look on his face.

"Why don't we slice open the top of your wing and shove you off a cliff and see what happens?" I snapped.

He raised an eyebrow. "Can you fly long enough to get out of here? I don't think Shadow'll stay down for long."

I nodded, hoping that I could. My wing was stabbed every time I used it, blood starting to mat some of the feathers together.

And then, we saw what could quite possibly be heaven on Earth.

Wal-Mart.

I have no idea what it was doing in the middle of nowhere, but it didn't matter. The two of us landed in a tree near it, watching.

"Here," Fang said. "Let me wrap up your shoulder." He leaned over and, well, started fixing my arm while I scanned the parking lot for a good car to…um, borrow.

I grinned evilly when I saw it. One of my favorite cars of all time, and one of the most epic. As soon as Fang was done I grabbed his hand and we jumped down from the tree, me running and him kind of stumbling along behind me.

"Come on!" I laughed, pulling him along until we reached the car.

It was a bright, fiery red, like my hair without the gold streaks. It was kind of box shaped, the windows outlined in black/gray…material that I wasn't exactly sure the name of was.

A Honda Element.

Score.

**Yeah, this was more of a filler chapter, but necessary.**

**PERCY JACKSON DVD COMES OUT IN ONE WEEK! **


	24. Greek Mythology and Visions: Fang & Alex

**I just watched the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.**

**I. WANT. TO. SEE. THAT. MOVIE. SO. FANGING. BAD.**

**

* * *

**

**Fang POV:**

Traveling cross country with Alex was not one of the things on my favorite memories list.

It's not that she tried to attack me, or kill me, or cause me bodily harm-oh no. It's because she acted like _herself._

See, we'd high jacked a bright red Honda Element (ironic much?). Alex plays the car game. In her mind, you _always_ have to hit someone on motorcycles, Bugs, and, of course, Honda Elements. Every freaking hour her fist would slam into my shoulder and make me hit my head on the window.

I _tried_ to hit her back, but whenever I did, she'd find another car to hit me on. It was less painful if I just let her beat me up.

Then came the Fed-Ex trucks.

"Hey, look Fang! It's a Fed-Ex truck! Did you know that between the e and the x there's an arrow?"

I admit that I'd never actually noticed that. It was pretty cool.

Unless, of course, you see about ten billion in one sitting.

I don't know why everyone suddenly decided to ship stuff here-wherever that was-but I hate everyone who did. If I meet them, I'm bringing an AK-47. Because she said that _every. Single. Time._

"Rules are rules, Fangster," she told me after asking her why she kept saying that after I already knew it. "When you see a Fed-Ex thingy, you have to tell someone."

"Since when did you follow rules?" I snapped.

"This is one of those epic rules-like Chuck Norris and Gibbs and bacon and iPods and nachos, you just can't ignore them if you see them."

I rolled my eyes and turned on the radio, hoping that would drown her out.

It only made things worse. Stupid goddamn karma.

The radio station we were on was pop. Normally, this is okay. They played some really epic songs and stuff. But the problem was, just like most of this trip, it kept repeating. I will never be able to listen to 'Alejandro' again.

Alex didn't seem to mind. She cranked it up and sang to 'em all, which was annoying in its own way because I don't get how she could know every song on the station.

So I changed it. And changed it and changed it and changed it. All I got was crap or whiny country (same thing, except the country's worse).

We ended up listening to the pop station again, me probably looking like an emo guy, Alex singing her brains out.

There were, however, a few songs I didn't mind listening to over and over again. One of them was 'Nothin' On You' by B.o.B and Bruno Mars. The other I didn't know anything about (I'm pretty sure Alex did, but I wasn't talking to her at the moment):

**If I could write you a song and make you fall in love,**

**I would already have you up under my arm**

**I've used up all of my tricks, I hope that you like this**

**But you probably won't, you think you're cooler than me**

**You've got designer shades just to hide your face**

**You wear 'em around like you're cooler than me**

**And you never say 'hey' or remember my name**

**And it's probably because you think you're cooler than me**

I have no idea why I like that song. But still.

Alex punched me again, and I slunk down in my seat some, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Please tell me you're not going into an emolistic depression," Alex said.

I glared at her. "Even if I was, and I'm not, I think I'd have a reason to."

"You're no fun. Lighten up. Sing a song. Crack a funny joke. I feel like I'm the only one alive here."

"I am _not_ singing Justin Bieber." One of his songs was playing, that one about his baby (I didn't even know he had kids). I'd have rather rapped a Miley Cyrus song than sing it, unless we were talking about the Ludacris part.

"Aw, come on. He's not _that_ bad-granted, he usually sounds like a girl and he fell off a ladder trying to reach puberty, but still. You have to admit that 'Eenie Meenie' was a wicked song."

"Isn't that the one with Sean Kingston?"

"Correctomundo. The one were I thought they were saying 'catch a black chick' instead of 'catch up that chick'."

"Shows what you know."

She shrugged. "I know that de-caffeinated coffee is still two percent caffeine."

"Spock's blood type is T-negative."

"On average, a hundred people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year."

"The electric chair was invented by a dentist."

"Peanuts are an ingredient in dynamite."

"Most lipsticks have fish scales in them."

"Yet another reason to never use that stuff," she said, wrinkling her nose.

I smirked. "You lost."

Alex shrugged again. "I ran out of facts. The song was distracting me."

We were silent until the song ended-then Alex started a Greek mythology contest.

She beat me in a matter of seconds. She probably knew stuff no Percy Jackson fan would.

After she pwned me, she kept talking, telling me all kinds of myths she'd picked up over the years, explaining the Olympians and their powers to me.

It was actually pretty nice.

At one point, I had the seat as far back as it would go, my legs propped up on the dashboard, hands behind my head while Alex told me about how the three brothers-Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades-decided who got what part of the universe.

"Why didn't he live on Olympus?" I asked.

Because I'd been watching her the whole time, I saw the surprise on her face, though it only lasted a moment. I guess she hadn't thought I'd been listening. "What do you mean?"

"Why didn't Hades get a throne on Olympus with the rest of the gods?"

She frowned. "I think it was because the other gods feared him, and the Underworld demanded too much of his attention. He was only allowed to come to Olympus on the winter equinox, because it's the darkest day of the year."

"So he lived all alone down there with a bunch of crazy ghosts, a three headed dog, and a ferryman?"

Alex shook her head. "He kidnapped Demeter's daughter, Persephone. She could have escaped, but she ate three seeds of a pomegranate, which meant she would have to stay in the Underworld. But then someone made a comprise-either Hermes, Demeter, or Zeus, I can't ever remember which-and she spent half the year in the Underworld as Hades' wife, and half in the world above with her mother. It's the Greek's explanation of summer and winter."

"So what about the others? The Olympians who weren't the kids of Kronos and Rhea?"

She launched into a discussion about them, me asking questions every once in a while.

Eventually, though, she ran out of stuff, around the time the sun was setting.

"How's your shoulder?" I asked after a while.

Her hand didn't go to the bandage, like I thought it would, but the scar over her right eye. "I've had worse," she muttered darkly. "There's an exit up ahead," she said, changing subjects. "You wanna get something to eat?"

_What kind of stupid question is that_?I thought, but didn't say it out loud. "Sure."

Practically the only places to eat were a broken-down Wendy's I wouldn't have touched with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole and a DQ's. We pulled into the latter of the two, shocked the cashier with our orders, and then everyone else with our eating.

Eh, well. Who needs table manners anyway?

We got some ice cream to-go and left, this time with me driving. Alex started going through the glove box, muttering to herself. I ignored her until there was a very long silence from her side.

"Do you know what this is?" she asked.

I looked over. She was holding a piece of black plastic with a wire wrapped around it. "…No…"

"It's a radio adapter. For the iPod."

For the rest of the ride, we were rocking out to all kinds of bands: My Chemical Romance, Flyleaf, Paramore, Evanescence, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, Skillet, Boys Like Girls, and well, Lady Gaga, 3OH!3, Ke$ha, Katy Perry, and Taio Cruz.

It's a good thing people don't judge each other by their music (to much…), though. Alex was probably a bi-polar suicidal emo freak. I am not kidding. One of her favorite song's had this really creepy chorus that was all: "Watch me fault her, you're living like a disaster, she said kill me faster, with strawberry gashes all over."

There was another one that actually said 'My suicide…'.

Some Skillet was playing when I started to get a really bad headache. Every time I blinked, images would dance behind my eyes. Pins and needles start stabbing what little brain I had, and some invisible force pressed against my eyelids.

**I'm at war with the world and they**

**Try to pull me into the dark**

I scowled, rubbing the side of my head.

I thought Alex had been asleep (she sleeps in the weirdest positions-right now, she was lying on her stomach, head propped up on her hands, feet resting on the dashboard), but she looked up and stared at me for a second. "What's wrong?"

**I struggle to find my faith**

**As I'm slipping from your arms**

"Headache," was all I said, frowning. It was getting stronger. She was still watching me, though, so I slipped on an impassive look.

"Pull over." Her voice was firm and unwavering. I figured it'd be easier on me if I listened to her, so I did.

**It's getting harder to stay awake**

**And my strength is fading fast**

**You breathe into me at last**

We were both silent. But just as she opened her mouth to say something, that headache turned into something that would have rivaled Max's old brain attacks.

**I'm awake, I'm alive**

**Now I know what I believe inside**

**Now, it's my time**

**I'll do what I want, cause this is my life**

I leaned forward, clutching my head as the images came. Some shot by, but one stayed: a large, open clearing, with a rusted-down fence surrounding it. There must have been a building there at some point, because there were still little corners and stuff left from it.

"Fang? Fang!" I could feel Alex shaking me, but I ignored her. I _had_ to draw this. It was like a matter of life and death.

**Here (right here), right now (right now)**

**I'll stand my ground and never back down**

That one image took over my brain: nothing else mattered. I started clawing the steering wheel, something inside of me making me draw it.

Alex grabbed my hands. "What the hell are you doing?" she yelled, and my fingers started digging into her arms and drawing.

**I know what I believe inside**

**I'm awake and I'm alive**

I don't know what tipped her off, but I heard a few choice curses and she put something in my hands: a pencil and a piece of paper. The image started to take form, my hand flying across the page.

Once it was done, I blacked out.

**Alex POV:**

I stared down at Fang, whose head was resting in my lap, having fallen over after he finished drawing.

After checking his pulse and making sure he wasn't dead or anything, I reached under his stomach and pulled the drawing out.

I'd never seen the place before. I put it on the dashboard and stared at Fang again, sliding my fingers through his hair. Then I figured that was pretty creepy, and I stopped, unsure of what to do.

Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming surge of anger pour over me. I felt helpless, and I hated that. I hated that this stupid boy made me feel weird every time I was with him.

He woke up pretty soon (hallelujah) and glanced at me, looking like he'd just gotten out of bed. "What happened?"

I shoved my anger aside. "Don't you remember?"

He shook his head. "All I know is that I got a headache and then I blacked out. So what'd I miss?"

Oh. Right. I remembered Alice saying that happened to her too. "You drew this." I gave him the picture, still puzzling over what it was.

Fang just shrugged, then looked at the steering wheel. "Whoa."

It was a mess. His claws had come out when he'd gotten the vision or whatever you wanted to call it. "Yeah. I think you kind of messed it up."

"Is that normal?"

"If you happen to be an elemental with razor sharp claws and a bad attitude, it's totally normal to screw up a steering wheel in a couple of swipes."

"I meant the…whatever the hell that was."

"It's your elemental power-Alice has the same thing. She calls it image prophecies, since there's the visual kind and the creepy Percy Jackson Oracle kind," I told him, rubbing the blood off my arm where he'd scratched me.

"Does she always black out afterwards?"

I shook my head. "No, but she told us that she did the first time she got one. You'll get used to it after a while."

"Think the car still works?" he asked, changing subjects.

"Doubt it. It was probably almost out of gas anyway-let's just ditch it and get out of here." I climbed out and slung my bag over my shoulder, feeling angry again. Fang seemed to sense the change in my emotions, walking silently behind me.

Scowling, I jumped over the guard rail, my shoes sinking some in the wet ground.

This was going to be a long night.

* * *

**The next chapter is already written: it shall be posted shortly.**


	25. Falling in Stuff: Alex & Fang

**So...this chapter was written long before this story was... I apologize in advance for any possible confusion, weird wording, or some such nonsense. But hey, it's Flex! Now all you Fax haters shall be pleased!**

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**Alex POV:**

I hated him.

I don't think I'd ever hated someone so much in my life.

He made me feel…weird. When he was sad, I wanted to comfort him. When he smiled (which was pretty rare), he made me want to smile too.

Because of that, I hated him. Even with Violet and Gaia, the best friends anyone could ever have, I'd never felt like this.

_The world hates me_, I thought. _This is like karma with a dark, twisted sense of humor_.

I looked at him from across the fire. Both of us were leaning against trees, too hyped up to stand up. The dim light cast a weird glow in his eyes, made his skin a pale brown to an almost black color. His hair was a mess, as usual, and I had to stop myself from trying to reach over and slid my fingers through it.

"Hungry?" Fang asked. I scowled when my heartbeat seemed to pick up when he talked. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Fang, mistaking me scowling at myself for scowling at him, shrugged and said, "Guess not then. Looks like you're feeling better."

"Shut up," I snapped. He just rolled his eyes.

Why did the flock have to decide to spilt up into twos? Why couldn't I have gone with Violet? Crap, at this point I'd be willing to trade Fang for Skye. What had the world freaking come to?

Fang wiped his hands on his jeans. "Gee, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you don't like being here alone with me."

"Mostly because I'm tempted to rip your head off your neck, and the others wouldn't like that very much."

He snorted. "Good thing they like me then, ain't it?"

I shrugged, then winced, my shoulder suddenly on fire.

Fang was suddenly by my side. "Here. Let me make sure you didn't re-open it," he started to slide my sleeve up, but I managed to slap his hand away. I didn't care if it was stupid, but I didn't want him touching me _at all_. It was bad enough to feel like this (see above: stupid feelings).

He gave an annoyed sigh. "Alex, quit being an idiot."

I weighed my options.

1) Ignore him and most likely get my shoulder screwed up, causing Skye and Thor to annoy me to death when I saw them.

2) Ignore my stupidity and let him look at my shoulder.

With a far amount of mental cursing, I chose two and nodded.

He gently began undoing the bandages on my shoulder.

"Yeah. You and your insanity got your shoulder ripped open again." He started wrapping it up, using something that stung like hell.

I looked over to see if he was almost done, just as he looked up at me.

I don't know how it happened. He might have done it, I might have done it, we both might have, I don't know.

I didn't care.

And I didn't really have much time to think about it.

Because at that moment, Fang's arm was around my waist, and his lips were against mine.

I hated him.

But I kissed him back anyway.

He turned me around so I was facing him, and I slid my fingers through that silky soft hair, pressing myself against him.

I'd kissed guys before. I mean, I'm a girl. I've been on a date or two.

But this? This was completely different.

Fang didn't kiss me because he thought I was some brainless beauty (though you'd have to be mentally impaired to call me a beauty). He kissed me because I was, well, _me_. If that makes any sense at all.

The kiss deepened, and I felt myself relax in his arms. That scared me.

Again, I didn't have time to think about it. Because at that moment, something changed.

Something that completely destroyed so many past lessons and rules I'd set for myself when I was eleven.

I normally feel like someone stuck me in a huge fire and left me there. It doesn't hurt at all though. It feels great.

Right now, however, I felt as cold as ice.

_No_, _please, crap, no. Please don't let this be real. I promise I will never, ever make fun of people with overactive-imaginations again._

I felt like I was surrounded by shadows.

Immediately, I wrenched myself away from him. The only problem with that was that, since my mind was basically a bunch of microwaved fudge, I ended up tripping over my feet and falling down in front of him.

Fang had a look of shock on his face, probably like me.

He opened his mouth to say something, but I didn't stick around to listen. I ran.

The only problem with that plan was that tears were falling down my face, and I was running really fast. After a little while, my sadistic karma stepped back in, making me trip over a tree root. I fell down on my good shoulder, legs tangled up in weeds and stuff.

I just laid there, crying soundlessly, wondering why these stupid _scientists_ had in inject avian DNA into kids. That way, I would have never met Fang.

And I wouldn't have met that stupid asshole, Shadow.

Memories floated through my mind, ones that I'd managed to keep away. They were back, thanks to Fang.

"_Come on Alex. I thought you liked to play games." Shadow whispered in my ear. I shivered, desperately trying to hold back my tears._

"_Please, Shad, don't." He just shook his head._

"_Too late, Alexandria. You'll get over it." he grabbed the chains they'd so thoughtfully provided since I wasn't so cooperative last time, and pulled me down onto the bed._

Shadow had been my very best friend at the School, someone who always had my back. Then something changed…my best friend disappeared.

I blame it on the School. But that's not the real point.

The point is I was raped by my best friend. A little while later I found out I was pregnant.

After a couple of months I had my daughter. Sammy had looked a lot like me, but with golden colored hair, like sunlight. Only fitting, since she was a Light elemental.

I was eleven.

I know you're thinking that there's probably no way a girl can get pregnant at eleven. For elementals, it is possible. We have early maturity levels, you know? So when I was eleven, I had the body of a fourteen year old.

Anyway, after that I had totally blocked myself up from everyone, even Violet and Gaia. It had taken _every freaking ounce _of self-control to not just like, give up and die, or at the very least give up hope on everything.

I remember Violet goading me into acting like my normal smartass self, and me telling myself that, no matter what, I couldn't ever trust a pure-Shadow elemental.

A noise brought me out of my mental self-depression/pity rant.

"Alex?" I bolted upright, and forced myself into Shadow mode (yes, I understand the irony). Without giving _him_ an answer, I turned and ran again.

All of my life, when it was me by myself, I'd never ran away from the things I didn't like. I stood up and fought, not matter what the cost.

Until now.

_Damn him, _I thought, _damn him to the deepest pits of Hades._

But I still ran, even though it felt like I had left my heart back there with him.

Even if I knew I was running from the only person I would ever love.

Fang.

My soulmate.

* * *

**I feel like a hopeless romantic now. I'll have to listen to a buttload of AC/DC and read some kind of kick-ass fanfiction for a month just to get rid of it.**

* * *

**Fang POV:**

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two amber eyes glaring at me before they disappeared.

I managed to catch her and pin her up against one of the trees.

"_Let. Go. Of. Me,"_ Alex snarled, punching me with each word.

"No. I want some answers."

"Go to the library. That's where most kids go," she snapped.

"Yeah, well, I doubt they have the answers to why you're such an idiot."

"I'm special alright? But my specialness does _not _include you pinning me to a frigging tree. So, in case you didn't understand me the first time, _get_ _the hell off me_."

"You changed the order."

Her eyes flamed, fire forming in her hands, but it didn't hurt me.

"The only way you're leaving is if you just answer my question."

"Dammit Shadow, let-"

"I'm not your boyfriend, smart one."

Alex's hand reached out, fast as lightning, and slapped me across the face.

I winced, but didn't do anything back. "It's just one question, okay? Nothing that bad," I told her.

"Let go me!"

"Are you going to answer the damn question?"

"Not until you let go me."

"So you can go and hide like you always do? Don't think so."

Her eyes burned. "Get off me and I swear on my iPod I won't run away."

I looked at her for a second, then stepped back, pulling her with me as I did. She jerked her hands out of mine, shoved her thumbs in her pockets. "Fine. You win. What do you want?"

"_Why?_"

She stared at me. "Why _what?"_

"Why the hell do you hate me? Why do you hate Shadow? Who's Sammy? What the hell's going on here?"

The questions caught her off guard. She grimaced and ran a hand through her already screwed up hair. She walked over to a tree and sat down, legs up to her chest, head resting on them.

I hesitated for a few seconds, then walked over and sat beside her. My arm decided to randomly wrap itself around her shoulder and pull her closer to my side.

"I hate Shadow because he raped me," she said after a little while. "Because he pretended to be my best friend and then betrayed me. Sammy's my daughter. Shadow's her dad. I have no goddamn clue what's going on, so that's a pointless question."

"Then why do you hate me?"

The silence seemed to stretch out for the longest time.

"Because…because of what happened when you kissed me. I don't…I never…" she sighed again, burying her face in my shoulder.

I thought of everything I'd been through with Alex, and that stuck-in-the-fire feeling I'd had when I'd kissed her. I thought of Max, back before she'd betrayed me.

"Yeah. I know how you feel, Alex."

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**Lalalalala...isn't this just a dandy chapter? Now everyone can drown in it's Flexness. I hope you're all very happy with the mushy-ness shoved into the story. I need to barf now.**


	26. Shadow's Girl: Fang and Alex

**We're delirious! (Tear it down, till the sun comes back around). -Song quote right there. Just in case. **

**Well, I had to prove I had a life and go to a nerd camp in California. It was awesome. We went to Santa Monica and got a picture with a drunk Elmo, I defeated a Greek girl in air hockey, Sage and I sang heavy metal Taylor Swift and three people knocked on the door because they thought someone was dying, I got the awesomest water bottle ever, and we got a two hundred and twelve dollar check from Bubba Gumps. I wish I had taken a picture of it. And we can't forget the nom-hugs and the dieases. FTW.**

**Anyfroodles, much like the last chapter, this one was written ahead of time in bits and pieces. It's sort of...jumpy, because I'm sleep-deprived. **

**Heavy metal Taylor Swift. Try it.**

* * *

**Fang POV:**

I woke up the next morning with Alex's head on my shoulder and one of her legs resting slightly on mine. One hand had a death-grip on my shirt, and she smelled like cinnamon (among other things).

For a long time, I sat there, staring at her, wondering what the hell was going on here. This was beyond crazy. This was like the time Max…

Never mind.** (OMGZ! NEVER MIND ISN'T ONE WORD! …My life hath been destroyed.)**

I must have twitched or something, because Alex woke up at that moment. She didn't freak out and scream or cry hysterically, just moved away from me, rubbing her eyes and making sure not to look anywhere in my direction.

This was going to be a long day. But after everything that happened last night, I'd go along with it for Alex.

Groaning, I stood up, legs sore and still suffering from a bad headache, then starting for the camp site. Al followed me, rummaging through her bag when we got there, producing two 3 Musketeers bars and chucking one at me.

"Thanks," I said. She nodded.

A slightly awkward silence fell between us-but how were we supposed to act? The two of us had gone from hating each other to possibly being soulmates (I _still_ don't get this soulmate crap. Whoever thought this up, thanks for making everything _totally friggin confusing_.) **(-wink-)**

Alex was nibbling on a 3 Musketeers bar, her dark amber eyes darting around, following the path of a seriously confused lizard. She gently picked it up and watched as it crawled around her arm, chewing her chocolate bar half-heartedly. I internally snickered. Sometimes she acted like a little kid - but then again, she'd never really had the chance to. None of us had.

So I found myself watching Alex again, more because she was pretty interesting and I had nothing else to do.

The lizard crawled all the way up to her shoulder, clinging to a strand of her dirty hair. She looked over at me, grinning, and it was like that time in the woods when we'd failed to get Sammy - a different Alex popped up, but instead of being pissed off and depressed, this one was happy and…I dunno. But still.

We left a few minutes later. I struggled to find some safe topic to talk about, because the tension in the air was so thick you probably could have fed it bacon and nachos.

"So…erm…that Prometheus statue you said we were meeting at…wasn't he a Titan?"

She looked relieved. "Yeah. He gave fire to mankind and was chained to a rock so a vulture could eat his liver out every morning as punishment."

"That…sucks," I finished lamely.

"Especially since he…" she rambled on about the Titans, going over how, technically, Artemis could be considered the goddess of the moon since Selene was a Titan, and the same for Apollo and Helios. "I think."

By that time, we were getting pretty hungry, so we flew down to a town and pretended to be two normal teenagers (though we were anything but).

Al (which is my new official nickname for her nickname) and I were about to enter the amazing building that is Chick-Fil-A when she freaked.

Alex grabbed my hand and jerked me around, walking as fast as she could without drawing attention. She shoved her Musketeers bar into her pocket, then pulled a hat out of nowhere and stuffed her flame red hair underneath it.

"What's with you?" I whispered.

"Look behind us," she whispered back. I turned around and saw about 10 guys, goofing around and being stupid.

To everyone else on the street, they would look just like regular guys.

To us, they looked like Trackers looking for a few elementals-me and Alex for example.

"Come on, come on, _please_ let there be someplace we can hide," Alex muttered under her breath.

I knew what she was thinking. With ten of them, we didn't have that great of a chance, and if we _did_ fight, then all the other people would probably get hurt, and at the very least know about us. We wouldn't be able to get within spittin' distance of this town for a while if that happened.

"Yes!" A huge building was right ahead of us, with an orange banner that read 'Open Mike Night'.

We both slipped in, quickly mingling with the crowd. There was a band on stage doing 'It's Not My Time' by 3 Doors Down.

"Okay, just walk around for a little bit, then meet me over there at the back doors," Alex said. I turned back around to face her - and then jumped back about a foot and a half.

She'd taken her hat off.

And she was _blond_.

"What's with _you_?" she snapped. I tried not to laugh.

"Just having a hard time seeing you as a blond girl. 'Cause, you know, half the preppy/cheerleader people in the world _do _have _blond _hair." **(This is not meant to be offensive. I'm a blond too. :D )**

"Ooh, you better be glad those Trackers are here. Otherwise I'd kill you," she stormed off, her _blond _hair flying out behind her.

I was having too much fun with this blond stuff.

* * *

I met back up with the still _blond_ Alexandria later, and we slipped out the back, running down the alley way…and into a dead end.

"Now what?" I asked, annoyed.

She glared at me, then snapped her fingers and suddenly she was on the roof. "Come _on_ Shady Boy," she hissed.

Whoa. "How the hell did you _do_ that?"

"Shadow powers. Just imagine it, like, I dunno, sliding under your feet and pushing you off the ground."

Right. Great. They hadn't taught me this in my 'training'. Stupid elementals.

I tried a few times, but in the end, I just flew up there.

Alex huffed. "Cheater."

Silently, we both started crawling across the roof, acting like ninjas with no lives. Nothing happened, and the coast was clear, so we jumped off the edge of the building (Alex did a cool roll at the end, proving our bad impersonations of ninjas).

I grabbed Alex's arm and started pulling her toward the forest I'd seen earlier, and, still using the ninja skillz, we duck in them.

"That was easy," Alex said, looking over her shoulder. I resisted the urge to say "A little too easy." and just nodded instead.

_Bam!_

"DUCK!" Alex yelled. Both of us dropped to the ground and I saw a…something slam into a tree. We jumped up and started running, knowing who was shooting us without even thinking.

A whizzing sound reached my ears and I quickly pulled Alex out of the line of fire.

"Thanks," she muttered.

I grunted just as two Trackers jumped out of the trees.

"What do we have here?" one said/hissed, cocking his head to the side. "A few lost puppies?"

"Look more like lunch to me," the one beside him said. They laughed, though I didn't get what was so funny.

Alex and I looked at each other. We both nodded.

She whirled around to face the other two that were coming up behind us, her back to mine. We raised an arm.

At the exact same time, the two of us threw 'power-balls' at the Trackers (a.k.a. Alex threw a ball of fire and I threw a ball of shadows.)

The Trackers where thrown back, but got back up after a second or two.

Alex was ready though. She linked her arms through mine, then yelled "Bend!" I did what she said, and I heard her legs hit one of them, and a grunt as he hit the other one. Then she unhooked her arms and did this weird move that brought her in front of me, and she slammed a foot into another guy, making him fly back a few feet. I punched the other one, and we were off again, running though the trees.

Branches scratched at our faces as we ran, and our lungs started heaving. We didn't dare stop, though. If anything, we ran faster.

Another low, whining sound reached my ears. Alex looked over her shoulder, gave this weird little gasp of surprise, and slammed into me, her weight knocking me off balance and sending both of us head first down a hill, Demon Girl over Shadow Boy.

We didn't waste any time. I helped Alex up and we were running again, trying to find a space good enough that we could fly out of here.

"Al, do you think-" I froze.

She wasn't there.

I kept looking around, thinking that any second now she'd jump out and grin, then call me an idiot and move on. But she wouldn't have done that when there were Trackers after us. So where the hell was she?

"Lost something, have we?" someone asked from behind me.

I whirled, and Shadow's fist slammed into my side. My foot kicked out and heard a satisfying grunt as I stood.

"What are _you_ doing here?" I snarled.

Shadow's eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm giving you a warning - if you ever touch Alex again, I'll kill you."

"Don't like the fact that the girl who hates your guts is with another guy?"

His fist flew up, but I caught it and shoved him away from me. He barely moved. Damn elemental abilities.

"Leave Alex alone," he growled. "She isn't yours."

"What, now she's some random object? No wonder she ditched you. And just for the record, she sure as hell isn't yours either."

I don't know what he would have done next, because the person mentioned above tackled him to the ground.

"And we were having such an interesting conversation," I muttered, watching her knock him to the ground. Then I looked up the hill. "Alex?"

She punched him in the face. "Kind of busy at the moment!"

"It's really important."

She kneed him where the sun don't shine. "Give me a minute, okay?"

"I just thought you'd like to know that there's a couple of Trackers heading towards us with sniper rifles. It's not a big deal, but still."

She slammed his face into the ground. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"You said you were busy."

I'm pretty sure she just gave him a few broken ribs. "Smartass," she said, standing up and putting him into the land of the unconscious. "Let's go."

The place was large enough to pull a U and A, so we were off in a matter of seconds.

Alex and Fang: 1. Shadow and the Trackers: 0. Stick that in your girly drink and suck it.

* * *

**Alex POV:**

My thoughts were flying at three million miles an hour in my head as we camped for the night, since we'd been flying non-stop for hours to get to Long Island (why did I ever agree to that?).

Fang and I were…soul mates. There. I said it. (Soulmates is such a weird word…sorry, moving on). There was no denying it, no matter how much I wanted to.

I sighed and rested my head against my knees. Sometimes - not often, but sometimes - I really hated being an elemental. But you learned to get over it.

I wondered where Violet and Gaia and Skye and Thor were. We were supposed to meet up tomorrow. I hoped they were alright.

Fang walked over and sat down beside me. "You okay?" he asked quitely, rubbing my back.

I nodded. "Yeah. Just tired. Wondering where the guys are."

"They're fine. You know that."

"So? I won't be able to stop worrying until I see them."

Fang gave me a half-grin, his signature mark. Random.

Then he gently pulled me to him until my head was resting in his lap, his hand tracing circles on my arm.

For a brief second, I wondered if having Fang as a…sm (it's just too weird a word, okay? Sue me) would be that bad. He was alright, aside from being as annoying as hell (not that I have room to talk though). We'd been through a lot together the past couple of days.

Surely it couldn't be as bad as having someone like Shadow…

_"You belong to me, my Flame Red Queen..."_ I shuddered, breaking away from the memory and creepy song.

The hypnotic flames and the stress of the day were making me sleepy. Maybe I could just take a quick nap…

As soon as I thought that, my eyelids began to drop.

_Just a quick nap, maybe…_

* * *

**Third Person POV (Why the hell am I putting this?):**

Alex feel asleep in Fang's arms, for once in her life not having nightmare-induced dreams.

Fang watched her, not exactly sure what to think of the girl at the moment.

When he first met her, she hated him, and the feeling was mutual. But now…

He shook his head. He'd think about it in the morning.

* * *

**Such a gay way to end the chapter. -le sigh- Nom hugs anyone?**


	27. GFB Doom For MaxRide101: Alex & Fang

**So dearest Maxy-kins, my artist-in-crime and GFB doom buddy is leaving. For three weeks. ****That's just depressing. I feel like I'm suffering from…something…dramatic. Yeah. Let's go with that.**

**And that's why this is before you. It's rushed, it makes no sense (Max'll get most of it), it's got almost nothing to do with anything.**

**It's dedicated to Miss Max. There. Can I have the nomish wings now?**

**Random comment: MaxRide101: **Oh, and we don't need to make American jokes. They make themselves. -fail-**Me: **No they don't. Foreign countries do, and THEN they're sent to America. Burn on my own country.

* * *

**Alex POV:**

I really need to stop sleeping right next to Fang (or, more accurately, laying on him). It's so awkward when you wake up and your head's on his lap.

Fang never seems to mind. He'll just wake up, which makes me wake up and feel embarrassed, then stretch and ask what the plan was now.

Those are the moments when you can't help but love him, in a slightly annoyed way.

I tilted my head back and looked at the sky. "Let's see how far we can get before it rains."

"You think it'll be a storm?" he asked, shrugging his backpack on and handing me mine.

Funny how a little while ago he probably would have tried to take my head off with it. "Dunno. Hope not."

He looked at me for a second, then shook his head and chuckled quietly.

I frowned. "What?"

"Nothing."

"It's not nothing. If it was nothing, you wouldn't have said 'Nothing'. That obviously makes it something."

"Or maybe you're saying things that end in 'thing' too much and hearing things that aren't there."

"Maybe you're saying 'thing' too much and thought something really bad, because you're not telling me what you said nothing to and started this whole argument."

"Maybe you're just confusing me with your really long sentences and not making any sense."

"Maybe you're just jealous that I have that power and that I have better hair that you do."

"Maybe you're just mad that I not only have much better hair than you, but I have better skin."

"Maybe you're just upset that my eyes are awesome, and my name's not a verb."

"Maybe you're just depressed that you're name could never be used as a verb, and that I'm taller."

"Maybe you're just annoyed that I'm shorter and therefore more lovable than you ever will be."

"Maybe you're just a stubborn elemental with no life."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Maybe you're just infuriating." **(Five syllables. Win.)**

"Maybe you're just insufferable."

"Maybe you're just as annoying as all hell."

"Maybe you're the stupidest and idiotic girl I've ever met."

"Maybe you're the biggest jerk the world has ever seen."

"Maybe…insert witty comment here."

Cue staring. "Really Fang? Really?"

"What? I distracted you, didn't I?" Before I could snap at him about whatever I'd forgotten, he took a running start, then spread his wings and jumped into the air. His black wings glinted in the light and I had to stop myself from grabbing my notepad and drawing the scene.

I followed him, wishing my wings weren't all colorful and creeptastic. Stupid bird-boy. Couldn't mine have decided to just be one color?

But you guys don't want to hear about my wing rant. You guys either want me to a) mention something witty, b) get beat up, c) beat up someone, or d) make out with Fang.

Admit it, you thought about one of those.

Happily (for b and d) and depressingly (for a and c), I didn't do any of those things. I just flew, racking my brain and attempting to figure out what Fang had distracted me from.

"Are you okay? You look like you swallowed Tabasco sauce mixed with chili peppers and ice cream," Fang told me.

"And you know what that tastes like because…?"

"Pray that you never, ever, ever, on any circumstances, play Truth or Dare with Iggy Griffiths." He said the name in an amused but dark tone. I felt kind of bad for him, getting betrayed by his family. It made me feel a little less guilty about the time I'd run into them-literally.

Continuing on.

It didn't look like anything was going to happen **(damn filler chapters)**, which seemed like a good thing at the moment. It started raining, and the strangest thing happened…

There wasn't a forest for us to land on near the town.

Never, in my fourteen years, or in my two years of running free, has this ever happened. Ever. Zip, nada, zilch.

Maybe the world _will_ end in 2012. (And maybe the Netherlands will actually win the finals next year.)

We resigned to landing on a building that seemed to have escaped anyone's notice for years. From there, we found a decent and cheap hotel, got a room, and then headed off to find a store to nab some snacks from.

Walking down the street (singing doo wa diddy…never mind), Fang randomly decided to sling an arm around my shoulders.

Why? That's an excellent question. I have no idea.

So I tried to make a joke out of it when I ducked out from under said arm. "You're a pretty hands-on guy, ain'tcha? I'm going to have to get a squirt gun and be all "Bad Fang!" every time you do that."

Fang's lips twitched. "There are so many perverted jokes I could make out of that," he said.

I snickered, the image of Fang with no shirt on and a dog collar around his neck popping into my brain. I didn't even _want_ to know what he was thinking.

"Dirty babe…" he sang softly.

Cue cackling. "You see these shackles, baby I'm your slave."

"Did you honestly just quote that song at me?"

"You started it."

"Still, I didn't think you'd go along with it."

I shrugged. "I went along with playing Truth or Dare with my sugar-high flock. Everyone was traumatized by that one episode."

He raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"

"I had to give Thor a lap dance. Gaia seduced Skye. Violet made out with me. Skye and Thor…well, I swore not to tell anyone about that, so never mind."

Fang gave a low whistle. "That bad?"

"You've no idea," I said as we opened the store doors that I swear said 'Horny Island' at first, but was actually 'Horn_b_y'. Pshaw.

The Fang Man (did I really just call him that? I'm deducting several points from my coolness scale) went off to get something, and I started glancing around, trying to see if there was any possible way I could find something awesome here.

That's when I saw it.

The one thing that would cause several fits of laughter and Fang's doom.

I had another case of evil cackling (this one quieter so he wouldn't hear me) and grabbed it, hiding it behind several random items of food that I'd taken off the shelves. Skipping happily, I found the ex-gangsta chicken. "Found anything?"

He held up some stuff, so I started dragging him to the counter, barely keeping the smile off my face.

We dumped our stuff on the counter and watched as the lady started scanning them and putting them in bags.

And then I had the satisfaction of watching some of the blood slowly drain out of Fang's face when he saw my weapon of doom.

"You wouldn't," he said, staring at me.

My face split into the evilest grin I could manage. "Are you willing to bet your life on that?"

He gulped.

The grin widened. "I'll take that as a 'no' then."

Fang's doom was sitting there, completely innocent, in the form of a bright red squirt bottle.

Boo-ya.

**Fang POV:**

I hate her.

I mean, I didn't even _do_ anything.

At the moment, the bane of my existence was curled up on a fluffy reclining chair. Her legs were pulled up close to her, and her computer was sitting on the arm rest. The…_thing_ was balancing on her leg, taunting me with its annoyingness.

"Al…don't you think this is just a tad bit overboard?"

Without even looking up, she grabbed the bottle and squirted me. "Bad Fang," she mumbled.

Cue facepalm.

"I didn't even-"

_Squirt_.

"What the hell was-"

_Squirt._

"_Alex_-"

_Squirt_.

"So what are you going to do when you run out of water?"

She didn't answer, just looked at me and winked.

I sighed and flopped out on the armchair beside her. If I'm going to die by a squirt bottle, I'm going to die comfortably.

"Can you pass the TV remote?"

_Squirt_.

"I hate you."

_Squirt._ "Bad Fang. Hate's a strong word."

"It's a strong feeling."

"You look better when I'm drunk."

I twisted around and stared at her. "What?"

"Sorry, it's a song. Though I'm sure your looks would improve by millions if a drunk person was looking at you."

"Haha."

_Squirt._ Right in the mouth. (That's what she said…)

She snickered and I turned back around. "What kind of weird song is that anyway?"

_Squirt._

_Floosh._

"DAMMIT ALEX!" I yelled, jumping out and trying to put out the fire on top of my head. "YOU FRIGGING PYSCHO WOMAN!"

All she did was cackle, making the chair fall back. "Your…face…priceless!"

I wrapped a hand in Shadows and ran it through my hair. It did nothing.

"ALEX! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Still laughing, she flicked her wrist at me. I cautiously felt the top of my head. No flames.

"I hate you."

She stood up, still chuckling. "Would you like a GFB?"

"A…what?"

Her lips twitched slightly. "I saw it on this random picture of a Gollum-look -a-like. Some creeper was talking to the person who drew it and they called the random orb he was holding a glowing Fang burger. Want one?"

"You suck."

"Cheesy plastic spinning tops!" she shouted cheerfully. "With fake dancing hamsters that sing happy birthday on Halloween!"

I stared at her. "Alex…"

She giggled hysterically. "Did you know that bananas are the most perverted food in the world? They're just so easy to make fun of."

"What did you eat?"

"A dead cactus."

I reached over and picked up one of the wrappers on the floor by her chair. They were all Kit-Kats.

My mind flashed back to that one time when Jeb had gotten candy for us at the store. He'd bought all kinds of stuff, a little for each of us.

For Max, he'd gotten ten or twelve Kit-Kat bars. I remember that night the most, because she downed them all in ten minutes.

And had the biggest sugar rush any of us had ever seen.

So if she and Alex were twins…

"I AM THE BANANA KING!" the red-haired demon yelled, diving onto the bed. "THIS IS A PEN! THIS IS A _PEN!_" **(Kudos if you know the movie that goes with that quote.)**

Dear God.

"Hey Fangy, you wanna play hockey with toothbrushes?" Alex asked, eyes bright. She looked so relaxed and…normal. Aside from the screaming, that is. "Or…we can use candy canes! I wanna use a wooden spoon. No, wait, a spork. Forks should be renamed Sporks. Think of all the amazing-WE DON'T HAVE A HOCKEY PUCK!"

I scrambled around for something to say, because she looked like she was about to cry. "There's…um…a…pop-up tent in the bathroom?"

She bounced up and tackle-hugged me. "Yay! Then we could make you a dandelion circ…circle…you wear too much orange."

It went on for hours.

The highlight of the moment was when she attempted a cartwheel and crashed into the toilet, then started singing the Canadian National Anthem.

But finally, around midnight, the noises stopped. I found her asleep on the table, hair all tangled up and falling in her face.

I was never going to let her live this down.

I carried her back to her bed and then climbed into mine, debating if I should tell Skylar and Thor about this when I saw them. She'd kill me, but maybe if I started singing the Canadian National Anthem she'd crack up and leave me alone.

Sleep came pretty easy for once, but karma stepped in when it came to my dream.

Duct tape covered me from my neck to my toes, the bright pink neon kind. There were squirt bottles all over the place, glaring down at me with evil faces drawn on them.

"Fang, you've been a bad boy," Alex said.

Oh hell.

* * *

**There you go. If you have internet at your cabin, I'll keel you and hug you at the same time.**


	28. YouTube, Here We Come: Fang & Alex

**I survived volleyball camp. Be proud.**

**I've been thinking…(I know, dangerous pass-time for me, but still.)**

**Has anyone read the description for ANGEL? It says that Max is joining up with Fang on a new mission to save the world.**

**And Fang has a new flock.**

**I've been harboring this weird idea in the back of my brain - what if it was **_**this **_**flock. This crazy, insane, slightly perverted and more than a little weird flock that was created one rainy day out of boredom?**

**It wouldn't be a Flex story - I'd rather not die death by characters - and it'd follow the books more. But what do you guys think?**

* * *

**Alex POV:**

I groaned as I sat up, throwing the blanket off me and rubbing my forehead.

Holy flaming cheese balls. If this was what a hangover felt like, I was never going to drink.

Fang came around the corner, holding the TV remote. When he saw that I was awake, I could've sworn he paled a little.

"Alex?"

"What?" I croaked, slightly annoyed.

"You don't have the urge to like, do the chicken dance and scream Kesha songs, do you?"

And they say _I'm_ the crazy one. "No. Do you?"

"Do you want to sing the Canadian National Anthem?"

"I always wanna sing the Canadian National Anthem. What does that have to do with anything?"

He grinned. "So you don't remember last night?"

That didn't sound perverted. "Should I?"

"Maybe you don't remember it because you crashed into the toilet. And the table. And the wall. And slammed your head on the desk."

Memories started to slowly leak into my brain. "Tell the guys are you are _dead meat_, Fang."

His grin widened. "Aw, come on. At least let me tell them that you were running around stabbing walls with a pen and wearing a Lady Gaga costume."

My face reddened. "I did _not_!"

"Sure looked like it. Either that or it was your inner fashionista shining through."

I groaned and buried my face in the pillow. "Shut up, you stupid bird-boy."

"You should be nicer to me, considering I have such great blackmail on you," Fang said with an evil genius-y voice.

"Have I ever mentioned that I hate you more than the girl who said fanfiction was stupid?"

"Skylar and Thor are going to have a _field day_ when I tell them about this."

And then it dawned on me: I had blackmail too.

"Not unless you want them to know about the spray bottle."

His silence spoke legions. (Does that make sense? I just felt the need to say legions.)

He was quite for a few more seconds. "Fine. We'll make a deal. What happens in room 136 stays in room 136."

I forced myself into an upright position and held a fist out. "Pack?"

He did the whole badass fist bump with me (complete with explosion sounds). "Pack."

That's how my day started out.

We watched NCIS for a few hours, not wanting to head out just yet. We'd covered a pretty good distance yesterday, so we could afford to kick back and relax for a few hours. Besides, it was still raining. Not as much as yesterday, but it was still there.

Then Fang got another vision.

It came on without warning, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, I saw him rubbing his forehead a couple of times but otherwise nothing happened - until he started that weird freak out 'must draw' thing.

"_Alex_," he choked out, and that was enough to tell me what was going on. I managed to shove a piece of paper and a pencil into his hands before he killed everything.

It longer than last time to finish. He didn't pass out, which is a bad thing because I didn't have time to get my expression under control.

"What?" he asked, looking at the drawing I'd taken from him, not understanding the uncoolness of the situation.

Wordlessly, I handed it back to him.

"So what? It's not like…oh."

The drawing was really detailed, everything from the people to the walkway. It was just a busy square in New York, according to a sign in the corner. In the center was a huge golden stature - Prometheus the Titan.

Sitting in front of it was that goddamned son of a fudge sucker: Shadow.

Frigging creeper.

"He just never gives up, does he?" Fang asked.

"I think he made sure my restraining order didn't go through."

"Maybe we could just blow him up."

I gave him a small smile. "As long as I don't have to clean up the mess."

"We'll make Skylar and Thor do it."

"I like the way you think."

He gave me that lop-sided grin, then stood up. "I'm gonna go get some lunch from somewhere. You comin?"

"Heck no. Have NCIS, will stay," I told him, flopping back down on my bed.

Fang rolled his eyes. "I'll bring you something back," he yelled over his shoulder.

* * *

**Fang POV:**

Life wasn't half bad at the moment.

No one was attacking me. I had lunch in my backpack, and it wasn't from a dumpster. I was listening to Alex's iPod (I really hope she doesn't notices the fact that I took it), and found that really cool song I'd heard when I'd gotten my first vision. There was a movie parody of Twilight coming out on the 18th. Bacon and nachos were still around.

So forgive me for feeling a bit awesome when I climbed up the steps to my floor, putting Alex's headphones in my pocket as I did.

I should have known it would be short-lived.

All of a sudden, there was this loud _boom!_ from me and Alex's room, then a beeping noise. I didn't pay too much attention, because I was flying (not literally) up the steps. Smoke drifted out of the windows, and there was a weird smell-cheese, cinnamon, and burnt water-coming out with it.

I kicked the door open, not having time to look for my key, and scrambled through the doorway. I couldn't see anything, just vague shapes.

"Alex!" I yelled, wondering what the hell was going on here.

There was a small _bang_ from my right, and a muffled curse. All I heard was something about bacon and iPods and carrot sticks, but it was enough for me to know who it was.

"Al?"

"Fa - shit!" Another noise, this time louder. "Bloody goddamned bacon-hating hell," she said. I saw her stand up, since the smoke was drifting out of the open doorway.

I walked over and grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the room as she attempted to get something off her foot.

When I got her into the hallway, I saw how weird she looked. Her shirt was torn, revealing small scars on her stomach. Her jeans were ripped at the knees, and there was some weird black substance on her face and in her hair. She was a mess, but my mess and not seriously hurt. **(I can't believe I really just wrote that. Fail.)**

I lifted one strand of the mass of flames on top of her head, peeling a piece of macaroni off it. "What in the name of Truth or Dare games did you do?"

Alex shifted uneasily, looking embarrassed. "Erm…nothing?" She ran a hand through her hair and dislodged several more pieces of cheesy doom.

With the annoying ease of someone who spent two years of almost nothing but standing in the mirror and practicing, I lifted an eyebrow. She bit her lip, not meeting my gaze. "It couldn't have been that bad," I told her. "C'mon, what happened?"

She shrugged. "I was…it's not a big deal, Fang."

Then it clicked. Another one of those twin things.

"You tried to cook, didn't you?"

Her cheeks got red. "I…you see-"

"You can't cook." It wasn't a question.

"I can cook perfectly fine, tha -"

"Then why is there burnt macaroni in you hair?"

She looked down again and didn't say anything. Point for Fang.

I sighed. "You've got cheese on your face," I told her, and pulled her just a bit closer. Her eyes looked a little panicked, but before I could do something to make her unfreak-out or whatever (does that even make sense?), my world exploded.

Literally.

One moment all I had to deal with was a crazy fourteen year old girl and her Kit-Kat problems, and the next it was raining fire and bits of the ceiling.

Alex tackled me down to the ground, her body covering mine and shielding me from the flames. I didn't fight it, because I knew the fire wouldn't hurt her in the least bit.

The pieces of our room stopped falling after a few minutes. I heard people yelling, crying, screaming - they might ignore a girl singing Lady Gaga at the top of her lungs, but I doubt they would ignore something like this.

Alex jumped up, pulling me with her and glancing at the remains of our room. "Fang…it's spreading."

She was right. The flames reached out to other rooms, to the weird trees in the center of the grounds, to anything that would allow it to spread.

Al ran over, flinging her arms up. Instantly, the fire started shrinking back, twisting and snarling, fighting hard against her restraints. I saw the beads of sweat drip down her forehead and watched as she kept pushing back on it.

It seemed to be a losing battle. The fire pressed up close to her, some invisible force pushing her back as it did.

"Fang!" she yelled, throwing her arms over her head. I ran over, Shadow flying out of my hands almost of its own accord.

Black mixed with red, forming a kind of maroon-ish color as we shoved against the flames. It slowly started shrinking back, and after a little while it was a small blob of color in our dead room.

Both of us were hunched over some, making sure the fire wouldn't start again out of nowhere.

Then we heard the voices.

"_Did you see that?_"

"There's _no way _that's possible!"

"Is this a movie?"

"_Ohmygod_! She just…and then he -"

"I've got to be dreaming."

"FREAKS!"

That did it.

Alex and I looked at each other, nodded, and leaped off the railing, our wings snapping out at the same time.

It might not have been the smartest idea, but we had to get out of there fast. And it was just about our only alternative, since fire trucks were starting to pull in. Guess it had taken us longer to get the fire down then I thought.

"Oh shit," Alex said. "We're screwed."

I followed her line of sight.

Standing there, two floors above our room and across from us, was a guy with a video camera.

YouTube, here we come.

* * *

**Later That Day:**

"Hey Max?" Mom yelled. "There's something you should see."

* * *

**Now, on to my longer A/N that I feel the need to put. Ignore if you wish, dearies.**

**DO YOU KNOW HOW FANGING EPIC I FEEL?**

**Guess who I added on Facebook.**

**If you guessed Harry Potter-Evans, Fang Bakon, Tatiana Ivashkov, and Luke Castellan, you're right.**

**Freshman orientation was awesome. I punched Andrew in the arm, Holly fell on her butt when she tried to hug Christian, I discovered that Sam's locker can be easily pranked because the lock doesn't work, I'm in band even though I never tried out in sixth grade, Julie wrote down where every single bathroom was, and when I screamed 'RA RA AH AH AH', someone screamed right back at me with 'ROMA ROMA MA MA', then someone else screamed 'GAGA OOH LALA', and I got to yell the 'want your bad romance' part. **

**My legs feel funny.**

**Three words: Vampires. Suck. Trailer.**

**Watch it. Embrace it. Love it.**

**Does anyone else think that Fergie's makeup/hair looks freaky in the 'Getting Over You' music video?**

**Summer's Winter is going to die tonight from a stuffed whale filled with pink paint, straws, and Barbie dolls if she doesn't read DOALM. If you don't know who that is, the same fate shall happen to you.**

**Happy birthday, Max. (I was going to draw a picture for you, but they kept failing over and over again so I threw it against the wall and gave it my best GFB-doom glare.) (And if it isn't your birthday, blame deviantART. They told me it was.)**

**Life is amazing right now. Even for someone like me.**


	29. Allie and Fangers: Fang POV

**So…erm…I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd updated…**

**-cough-**

**Awkward…**

**Blame Max for this first part. She said yes.**

**-coughcough- :D?**

**

* * *

**

"YES! We're on Equals Three!" Alex threw back her head and laughed, though I think cackling would have been a better description. She even did the evil finger movement thing.

For the ten billionth time, the librarian shot her a look that _clearly_ said 'shut the hell up before I come over and eat all your bacon', but once again, Alex missed it.

"This is the best day of my life. I wanna eat everyone, including gay sparkly vampires."

I stared at her. "That's a compliment?"

"No, it's a pony."

Why me?

"Sorry, all those blond vibes are getting to my brain." She'd changed her hair to _that _color since the video had been an instant hit. Her eyes were emerald, too, and she was shorter. Like, comically short. She only came up to my shoulder.

Also something I was constantly teasing her about.

"Shut up and die. Now. I never want to see your face again."

"But I'm in your _dreams_…" I said in my best creeper voice.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "As I have stated before, it's more like my nightmares."

"I bet your face is outlawed in Greece."

I thought it was pretty funny, considering how much she loved Greeks and all, but one look at her face and I knew I was going to regret ever saying that.

"That was cold, Fang," she said quietly, giving the floor a sad look, her lips trembling.

"NO!" I clamped my hands over my eyes, backing away from her and the computer we'd been using at the same time. "I am _not _falling for this. At all. No. Go die."

"Oh, first my face is outlawed in my favorite place, and now I should die? That hurts. That hurts right. _Here_."

I have no idea where she pointed, but suddenly she gasped.

"Ohho, no you don't. That's the oldest trick-"

"Fang. Did you get my bag?"

"What? No. Why would-"

"My iPod."

Oh snap.

"Erm…about the iPod…" I began, not sure if she would kill me for temporarily stealing it, even if I did save it's life.

Alex's eyes were drilling holes in the front of my head. "What about it?"

Slowly uncovering my eyes, I fished the red device in question out of my pocket and held it out, still not meeting her wolf-eyes. "I might have stolen it before the whole thing happened.

There was a long silence. Then Alex tackled me, and I tensed, thinking she was going to rip me to shreds, regardless of the librarian (who was no where to be found in the now empty library…).

Instead, she did something worse.

She _hugged_ me.

"You're officially my new favorite," she said, throwing her arms around my neck. "I'm even going to ignore the fact that you stole my precious baby."

"Great. Can you let go of me now?" I don't like hugs. I like Alex, but I don't like hugs.

"Hmm…no." Her grip tightened, and I swear my vision darkened for a second. "Maybe I will acknowledge your iPod-stealing-ness."

Oh hell.

"But by stealing it, I saved it. You owe me. So that means you should let go of me."

She sighed again and drew back some, allowing my poor lungs some air. "Touché."

We stared at each other for a few seconds.

"Are you going to let go of me anytime soon?" I asked.

"You're so demanding today, you know that?"

Very, very, very slowly, she leaned forward. Her lips met mine for about half a second before she pulled back, amber eyes dark and unreadable. "Thanks, Fang."

I had a feeling we weren't talking about the iPod.

"Anytime, Alex."

**(Why couldn't Max have said no?)**

* * *

"Okay. So. Where the hell are we?" Alex asked hours later.

I stared the map down, willing it to make sense and find a path out of the confusing mass of people.

Someone bumped into me, hard, glared at me like it was my fault, then kept walking. He's the seventh person to do that, even though we were standing against the store front, where people could dodge us and not give me a sore arm.

Ah, the joys of New York City/Long Island.

"May the iPods damn whoever built this place," Alex said, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at a blond girl with a Coke. "It's too _big_."

I swallowed back a 'that's what she said' comment and glared at the confusing mass in front of me again.

"Maybe we're here. See, there's the weird road over there, and it's right here on the map, so if this thing's right, we just have to go up here and follow that road, take a left at the other road, turn right again, then go down that other road and stop at that store because I'm _starving_, then take another two rights and go down another long stretch of road and _bam!_ there we are."

She stared at me for a long time. "That's the longest and most confusing sentence I've ever heard you say."

Facepalm. "Just follow me."

"I like that plan a lot better."

We headed down my completely non-confusing directions, grabbed lunch, and ended up in Rockefeller Center.

Which, of course, should have been cause for celebration - we'd (meaning me) had deciphered the map of doom.

So of course we had to go through another maze to find the damn statue.

I'm starting to hate New York.

Don't even ask me how long it took to battle through tourists and commuters - I'd say hours, but I'm probably wrong. We got lost a billion times, and I was hanging around a very pissed-off Alex near the end of our adventure.

Not fun. At all.

She only got madder when we found the statue.

"Damn." She swore loudly in some weird sounding-language (it was '_di immortals_' or something). "I was kind of hoping your psychic ninja powers were wrong."

I followed her line of sight. You probably know what we found, so I'll skip any dramatic lines of doom.

Shadow was sitting there, scanning the crowd around him. His face was blank, and he looked tense.

"How are we going to find the guys?" I asked.

"By turning around, for one thing," a new voice said.

And yeah, you probably guessed who it was.

Violet. And Skylar.

Alex tackled hugged my sister while me and the airhead did the badass fist bump.

"Two down, two to go," Violet said cheerfully, eyes bright and her grin earning its own zip code. "I think they might -"

She might have died of shock right there.

Her voice cut off in a high-pitched scream/evil laughter, her eyes bulged out of their sockets, and she did that weird 'I swear I don't have to pee, I'm just really excited' dance.

"You…you…It actually…I can't…you're both…IT WORKED!"

My ears just exploded.

"Way to call attention to yourself, Violet," Alex muttered, glaring at some passer-by and rubbing her ears. "What the hell was that about?"

She didn't answer, just stared at us like we were the best Christmas present at Halloween ever.

It dawned on us at the same time, and we both jumped back like there was a pink shark with electric needles and macaroni 'n' cheese growling at us.

"I'm feeling out of the loop. Can someone please explain what's going on?" Skylar asked.

"THEY'RE-"

"SHUT UP!" Alex yelled.

"BUT YOU'RE-"

"DIE!"

"I CAN'T-"

"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!"

"I hate to break this touching scene up, but Shadow's heading over here," I said.

Both of them glanced at the statue and say the pale emo boy stalking in our direction, muttering something into a walkie-talkie.

"Let's go," Alex growled. "Look for Thor and Gaia. _Don't _Violet. I don't care how happy you are."

Violet did seem extremely happy, despite the fact that Shadow was attempting to find us. She was skipping along, gripping Alex's hand and swinging it around wildly between them. Alex looked like she was about to murder someone, which may have been why everyone got our of our way so fast.

Gaia and Thor weren't too terribly hard to find - karma was giving us a break today. There were tackle hugs and whispers between the Pixie and my sister with Alex glaring down at them both and avoiding looking in my direction.

It looked like the beginning of another long week.

* * *

**A terrible ending. But the next chapter is going to have Kit Kats! And Alex and Fang thrown into a closet!**

**-cries- I'M SORRY! I FAILED YOU ALL.**

**Nomnomnom on Kit Kats. I promise Alex will be tortured next chapter for your amusement.**


	30. Mission Of Doom: Alex POV

**Warning: this was written late at night while the radio was playing a**_** really**_** terrible Justin Bieber song (Yooooouuu smile, Iiiiiii smile).**

* * *

Karma hates me. I swear, I was a puppy killer in another life or something drastic like that.

Because I was currently rooming with Violet and Gaia.

Normally, I would have been glad. They _were_ my best friends, after all. But _nooo_, they were all "OMGZ! ARE YOU AND FANG, LIKE, TOGETHER? LIKE, SRSLY? HOW LONG? DID YOU KISS HIM? OMGZ! YOU _KISSED _HIM! DID YOU LIKE IT? I. WANT. DETAILS."

They wouldn't. Leave. Me. _Alone._

Not even to sleep - after the initial questions, they kept babbling on, occasionally poking me when it seemed I might be able to sleep. My face remained red throughout the whole thing, sadly. Especially when they started talking about the video, which they'd found out about.

And apparently, the video cameras had caught the part where Fang was 'wiping cheese off my face'. Violet and Gaia made it sound like he was trying to Fanging seduce me or something (must…stop…using…name…as…verb).

"Okay, Alex, if you're not going to answer any of our questions you _will_ answer this one." Violet pounced on me for emphasis, jerking me out of my mentally doomed rant. "_Are you guys dating?_"

_This is all a dream,_ I thought. _Okay, more like a nightmare, but it will all go away, just as soon as you wake up._

The problem with that theory was that I had been trying to wake myself up ever since they asked the first question. Reality should die a flaming death.

"Alex, you'd better answer me or I'll color your hair pink."

"I DON'T KNOW!" I shouted, cringing at the thought my fiery hair, my one and only vain spot, being turned into that diluted color of certain death.

"Do you _want_ to?"

Nothing, on pain of death, would ever make me answer that.

"We have a bottle in Gaia's backpack…" she sang.

"YES!"

…Oh shit.

I clapped my hands over my mouth, horrified. Violet's mouth was collecting bugs as she stared at me, and Gaia looked like she was about to faint.

"You…you actually…" Pixie began, eyes about to fall out of their sockets.

"I KNEW IT! YOU LOVE HIM! YOU FANGING LURVEEEE HIM!"

So of course I couldn't sleep after that.

After three more hours of continued questions, another two hours of forcing them to go to sleep, and an hour of counting the tiles on the ceiling (around 39 total) and dead bugs behind the nightstand (13...and a half), I couldn't take it anymore. I slipped out the window, silently blessing whoever had gotten the rooms, since we were on the top floor and I wouldn't have to cross a bunch of windows to get to the roof.

A really long time later, someone shook me awake.

My eyes snapped open and met Fang's darker ones. The conversation from last night, which I'm sure he heard, came back, and my face reddened.

"You sleep in the weirdest positions," he said, shaking his head. "Freak."

"Just because you have no imagination in your sleep pattern," I muttered, sitting up.

"That would be because, unlike you, I still have a fair amount of sanity left."

"Insane people think they're perfectly normal. So you just admitted that you're insane."

"Regardless, I have more sanity than you do. You're like the poster child for crazy people."

"Way to make a girl feel loved, gangster chicken. Don't make me get a spray bottle."

He glared at me. "That was cold. Like, queen of ice cold."

"Much like my soul. It's a depressing, barren place. I wouldn't recommend visiting."

"It's number one on my list of places to never go to unless I have a death wish that requires me to die a very painful and non-baconistic death."

"My soul's staff thanks you for your complement."

We were silent for a while after that, and the silence was starting to get to me.

I looked up at him, about to say something, when he kissed me.

My fingers twitched, demanding to slide through his hair, but in a great show of self-restraint, I didn't. Instead, I forced myself to go numb, and when I finally did that, I jerk away from him and flew off the roof, not even bothering to give him an explanation.

Oh, the joys of being a mutant runaway with a crazy love life.

* * *

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Alex (or Fang, for that matter), the flock was downstairs planning their trickiest mission yet.

"Well, what if we got her drunk?" Skylar asked.

Violet snorted. "Yeah. _Great_ plan. I doubt anyone wants to meet a drunk Alex, unless they have a death wish."

"'Sides," Thor said. "She might end up trying to screw him."

Everyone stared at the Lightning elemental, shocked. Then Skylar fell out of his chair, laughing.

The girls, however, looked disgusted. "Just…no," they both said, grimacing.

Gaia buried her face in her hands. "How the hell are we ever going to get those two together? Alex'll never, under any circumstances, let up enough for anything to happen, unless aided by some form of drug."

If thoughts were bricks, Violet's brains would have splattered all over the walls in that moment. "Holy bacon and iPods," she breathed. "I've got it."

"If it involves beer and/or sex, it's out."

"Um, no. What if we gave her Kit-Kats? Not enough that she'd go crazy, freak-atomic summer of '09 kinda thing, but enough for her to…you know, relax some."

Thor tapped a finger on his mouth, thoughtful. "That might work. Remember the time we gave her some and she ended up flirting and crap with that surfer dude down at Santa Monica? It's the same principal, right? That's pretty much what we want her to do."

"Does anyone know how much we gave her?" Skylar pitched in from his spot on the floor.

Nobody said it, but it went through everyone's mind: _Of course not, that would have been too easy._

And thus, Mission Number One of Doom began.

* * *

**I know I promised eternal suffering and all, but it turned out to be longer than I thought it would be, and it seemed better if I split it up.**

**So, a note: This is slowly winding down to the end of this story. There will be another one where Max and the Flock enter and make Fang/Alex's life hell, which is currently being worked on as we speak.**

**It will happen. Alex will more than likely punch Max. More than once. And Max is going to punch back. More than once. Because that's what you do when you and your twin sister are genetically modified to be more kick-ass than the average person.**


	31. Trapped: Alex POV

**Has anyone realized what a creeper Rose whatsherface from Titanic is? She's just like 'I want you to draw me wearing this, Jack. _Only_ this.' Talk about awkward. And then in the car thingy, she just yanks him through the window and starts screwing him, basically. WTFang? Flippin' creepers.**

**PS: I'm handing the blame to Titanic for this chapter.**

**PPS: What the hell does TBS stand for? Televised bull shit?**

* * *

**Alex POV:**

Ninja skills would be the most useful thing to have in your arsenal. You can avoid so many doom-filled moments.

"Hey Alex!" Violet said in an overly cheerful voice that made me wince. She knew about the roof thing, didn't she? Holy bacon, I was never going to live this down. Fanging kill me now, EXCUSE EXCUSE EXCUSE-

"I'm just…getting…some of…the bacon!" I said, scrambling back from her and frantically walking towards my backpack.

She smiled, and my guard went up a billion notches. I knew that smile. The last time I'd seen it was when we'd made a fake bomb to explode on Thor's lap. Gaia had nearly murdered us, but it had definitely been worth it.

That didn't mean I wanted that smile aimed at me, however.

"Gaia and I," she motioned to the chair where the Pixie was currently sitting, wearing the same evil smile of her own. "were just talking about that time in Santa Monica when we gave you those Kit-Kat bars and you started flirting with a surfer."

…Coincidence? I thinketh not.

My chuckle was really weak sounding, and I made an even weaker smile. "Ha. I remember that. I totally failed."

"Seemed to work on him," Gaia said, spinning her chair around in circles.

"I never knew you even had it in you." Violet sniffed, pretending to wipe a tear from her eye. "Must have been part of the double K-high."

"Yeah…" I said, drawing it out really long. "Why the sudden reminiscing?"

"Nice two dollar word," Thor said from the doorway.

Well. I'm feeling ganged up on now.

"Thanks?"

"You're welcome."

"How many Kit-Kats did we give you anyway?" Violet asked innocently.

"AHHA!" I yelled, jumping up on the table behind me. "THAT'S WHAT THIS IS ABOUT."

They all stared at me like I was crazy.

"What ever are you talking about, Alexandria?" Thor inspected his nails, like my answer couldn't have mattered less to him.

"You…you're all…plotting something! And it's going to end up with some kind of magical blackmail to force me to tell you-"

"Tell us what?"

"Ooh, no. You are not tricking any info out of me, no matter how hard you try." I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at them.

"Not even if we dared you?"

Oh shabam.

See, you may not have known this, but I happen to be the unofficial Dare Queen of the flock. I've eaten the oddest and most disgusting substances known to man-kind, I've lick people's ears, and all sorts of other weird dares. They usually lead to some pretty hilarious moments.

But sometimes, it just sucks.

I sat down heavily, wishing I could mentally murder them all. "Fine," I growled.

Violet flashed another evil three-thousand watt smile. "How many Kit-Kats?"

Could I walk away? Was it possible?

Hells no. I had a reputation to uphold, and if I dodged them for the rest of my life, I'd never know what it was they were going to do. I mean, there's no way they got a random amount of Kit-Kats and were just waiting to shove them down my throat.

Right?

"It was three."

Skye chose that moment to burst through the room's doors. He held up a plastic sack, breathing heavily. "I got…the…stuff," he wheezed, doubling over for a second.

FOR THE LOVE OF FANGING BACON.

Thor dug around in the plastic sack that more than likely held my doom, then pulled his hand out of it.

Do you know what was in his hand?

It's not that hard to guess.

THREE. KIT-KAT. BARS.

"NO!" I screamed, scrambling to find an exit, but my torturers were too well trained: all of them were covered. "I HATE YOU ALL! YOU'RE WORSE THAN EDWARD AND BELLA!"

None of them were insulted.

Violet lunged and missed, but she did knock me into Thor, who'd creeped up unnoticed behind me. He pinned my arms behind me and Skye grabbed my feet. I kicked him where the sun don't shine and he fell back, only to be replaced by Violet.

"YOU ARE GOING TO DIE IN YOUR SLEEP TONIGHT!" I roared at her as she and Thor carried me to the table, kicking and snarling and living up to my Demon From Hell status. Smoke was drifting off my skin and flames were spreading around me.

"ALEXANDRIA SHADOW RIDE, I WILL EAT YOU IF YOU DON'T EAT THESE!" Violet yelled right back as Gaia appeared with three perfectly wrapped and poisonous candy bars.

"EAT ME! I HOPE I TASTE HORRIBLE!"

"EAT THE DAMN CANDY, BITCH!"

Whoa.

You know some major shit is about to go down if someone yells bitch. I'm serious. When Ms. Weasley said bitch, Bellatrix died (you know that was the best part, even if Bellatrix was a beastin' character).

So needless to say, I was shocked silent for a few seconds.

Which gave Violet all the time she needed to say the words that would, of course, make me kill her tonight.

"_I dare you to eat the Kit-Kat bars_."

I'm screwed.

* * *

A little while later, the sugar-high kicked in.

I'm not sure how they knew (it might have had something to do with me humming Miley Cyrus's 'Can't Be Tamed' and crackling up every five seconds), but as soon as it happened they hauled me off the table and carted me off somewhere.

I didn't start fighting again until I saw Fang, blindfolded and being led by Gaia to a small door set in the wall.

"Happy Halloween!" Gaia said cheerfully, opening the door and shoving Fang inside, me tumbling in after him.

Violet and Thor threw us into the closet and slammed the door shut with a loud _bam!_

Instantly, I kicked out with my leg, trying to break the door down.

I kinda forgot it was metal.

"Goddamn son of a fudgesucker!" I yelled, hoping up and down on one foot.

Fang chuckled behind me.

I stopped hopping, foot forgotten, remembering that I was stuck in a Fanging _closet_ with _Fang_ (and that Fang's name was _not_ an adjective).

Panic seized me as I stared in his general direction.

So. Not. Awkward.

I mean, what do you do when you've been locked in a closet with a guy that you're trying to avoid since all the crap happened and then he kissed you and you flew away?** (Must be a Ride thing…)**

Guess the guys had their own solution to the madness.

"Erm…so…" I said, leaning against the wall, trying to get as far away from him as I could.

"So," he said. I could imagine what he looked like: doing that weird one foot propped up on the wall, arms across your chest, one eyebrow raised thing, and then adding a sexy/badass expression into the mix…

Hell's fire. I _never_ thought that, okay?

I sat down on the cluttered floor, trying to ignore the somewhat bane of my existence (I always thought that meant your match made in heaven, but it actually means something you wish you could murder in its sleep…strange, huh?) and my rising claustrophobia. Me no likey small spaces.

Even ones with hot emo bird kids.

I groaned and buried my face in my hands. There was no hope for me.

"Alex?" he asked. I heard him walk toward me.

"I'm fine! Just…uh…stay over there." I wanted to scream. Having _him_ nearer would probably-

Fang.

Sat.

Down.

Beside.

Me.

Goosebumps crawled up my arms. My stomach clenched. My heartbeat went up, oh, maybe a few thousand notches. I think he heard.

It would have been the most epic moment for Carl the Llama, Ray William Johnson, or, hey, even RWJ's troll to crash through the roof and give me an escape route from my little torture box.

No such luck.

Deciding to try and save myself (since it didn't look like any magical beings were going to help out), I jumped to my feet.

And banged my head against something extremely hard.

"_Chizzfizz_!" I yelped, falling backwards, waiting for the inevitable impact of head on junk.

It never came.

Fang must've stood up when he heard me spazzing out in agony, because his arms were around my waist, my back against his chest.

Did he always have to catch me? I'd rather get a concussion from falling if it meant he'd just _stop_ for once.

"You know, if you wanted a hug you didn't have to go through all this. You _could_ have asked," Fang said.

I gulped. I needed my slightly smartass and calm side.

I found her dead in a long-lost corner of doom.

"Well I figured it was either this or a wrestling match in bed."

…

WTF ALEX, YOU DID _NOT_ JUST SAY THAT.

Fang's chest vibrated, which I took as laughter. "A wrestling match? I think I'd rather make a sandwich."

I really hope he meant that literally.

"So, uh, you gonna let me go?" Before I start acting like a hormonal teen? (Wait a minute…yeah, too late.)

The next laugh made my back twitch, and his arms tightened around me. "I dunno."

"Don't make me get a squirt bottle," I growled.

"Do you _really_ want me to let you go?"

Hells no. "Yes?"

Another chuckle. "That's what I thought."

He whirled the me around so my back was pressed against the wall, staring up at him. I couldn't see much of him, which (hopefully) meant he couldn't see my super-red face.

For a second we both just stood there, him all nonchalant and calm, me hyperventilating on the inside and mentally murdering my Kit-Kat-induced thoughts. (Don't. Ask.)

Then he utterly destroyed whatever sanity and self control I had left: he kissed me.

Again.

In a closet.

While I was on a Kit-Kat high.

That last statement totally defends me, right? None of the actions taken place in here were my fault. I was totally justified. Kit-Kats make me weird, and different amounts make me weirder in different ways.

I swear.

Which is why I practically melted into him, throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him back. His fingers were tangled in my hair, making a complete mess of it, but I couldn't have cared less.

If this was a Twilight-suckage book, my mind probably would have been making wedding plans and gushing about how the stars aligned, fireworks shot off into the night, and everyone had a happily ever after.

But honestly, there was only one thought going through my mind right then.

_He tastes like bacon._

I lead a sad life.

Light flooded the closet as the door opened, and I jumped (ever try doing that while kissing a guy? Not easily done).

"IT WORKED!" Violet shouted, clapping her hands excitedly.

I flicked her off over Fang's shoulder and kept my face glued to his as Violet cackled and slammed the door shut again.

Damn, I love that girl.

Just not as much as I love her brother.

* * *

**In order to distract both myself and you: Do you know how Fanging hard it is to balance your deviled eggs on a notebook? See, my aunt hasn't gone to the grocery store in a while due to prior commitments ('sides, who needs a grocery store when you can just call up Papa Johns and then chase after the pizza guy with a video camera and scream things like 'CAN I ADD YOU ON FACEBOOK?' or 'YOU LOOK JUST LIKE [insert book character here]!' or the ever-so awesome classic 'HOLLY WANTS TO HAVE YOUR BABIES.') and so I'm sitting here attempting to balance eggs on my notebook while write this and drink apple juice.**

**On to other subjects:**

**THIS IS THE NEXT-TO-LAST-CHAPTER.**

**Max and the Flock will be entering the sequel to this, just to make life easier. Details and other random notes will be in the next chapter.**

**Llamastraws!**


	32. Final Moments: Alex POV

**Please don't eat me...**

* * *

**Alex POV:**

This was it.

I took a deep breath, checked the backpacks for the ten billionth time, made sure everything was in place, stared at the door, wondered if the plan would work for once.

Fang was watching me. It was kinda creeper how I could feel his gaze on me, but he was a creeper, so it's all good.

The others had gone downstairs to get something to eat. I was _way _to hyped up to eat, and like I said, Fang's a creeper (I mean this in a good way. You know, like when you go to an amusement park, when a squirrel that's actually a lemur, but you and your best friend refuse to admit the fact, then you go on the Scrambler and scream squirrel and hold out your little stuffed animal of doom every time someone passes by you. Not, of course, that Violet and I have ever done this).

Either that, or he was afraid I was going to spontaneously combust from hyperventilation and/or lack of bacon.

Because, as stated earlier, this was it. It was _the_ day. We'd taken a week to get everything we needed - now we were in Maine, and we were busting Sammy out of there, along with Apollo and Artemis.

It was going to work this time. There'd be hell to pay if it didn't.

Fang's eyes were still boring into my back, so I straightened up and faced him. "You know, you could make yourself useful here."

He raised an eyebrow.

"You could ninja up some bacon and a Coke," I told him, hands on hips and using my ever-so-effective 'zombies eat brains but I own your soul' look.

He remained unimpressed. "Since when is ninja a verb?"

"Since I'm insane. Now, go ninja down the hallway and ninjalastically steal the reasons for my exsistence." I gave him the Look again.

Slowly, he stood, taking time to stretch his legs and pop his knuckles (have you ever noticed that when someone else pops their knuckles, you _have_ to do the same thing? If you haven't, you will now). Then, with that same agonizing slowness, he grabbed a key card and made for the door.

Sometimes, I really hate him. Filthy ninja.

I went on my rounds again, stomach tied in a sharp, twisty knot that was going to come up my throat and suffocate me and then suck my brains out my nose.

Man, my imagination was cheerful today. Thank the zombie unicorns I wasn't strapped to a chair right then. Your own imagination can be far crueler than any tormentor.

Good thing my imagination only involves ninjas, bacon, and iPods. Along with the occasional spray bottle.

The door opened, killing off my current train of thought. Violet, Skye, Thor, Gaia, and Fang all walked through it, the last holding my existence in his hands.

Violet raised an eyebrow (AH! JEALOUSLY!) and pointed at the door. "Ready?"

I swallowed. "Depends. Does Inception make sense?"

* * *

I'll skip the part where Gaia lead us to the School. Honestly, it's not that interesting.

We landed a few miles away from the grounds - we were already screwed enough, no reason for them to see us before we wanted them to.

Fear and anticipation crept through me. It's like that moment in a scary movie where you know what's coming, but you don't know when, or how, so you're sitting there on the edge of your seat wanting to know what'll happen but being afraid of screaming your head off and looking like an idiot in front of your friends, and, well, being scared?

Take that feeling and double it. Then add thirteen. That's about how my stomach was at the moment.

Not. Fun.

My hands were shaking, getting worse the closer we got. Lyrics and quotes from depressing songs/books leapt into my brain, picking at my small dose of optimism and eating its guts.

I really hoped we found them this time.

Fang's shoulder bumped into mine as he fell into step beside me. "Nervous?"

"Maybe a little." I rubbed the palms of my hands on my tattered jeans and shoved them into my jacket pockets. "You would be too if you were going to hell."

"Touché," he said, gazing up through the trees. "At least you have the power of the bacon you ate this morning to dominate anything that gets in your way."

A small sliver of laughter escaped me, and I felt grateful he was here. Even if I did hate him when he first showed up.

The forest thinned out ahead of us, revealing grey skies and an even greyer hunk of wall. The rest was covered by long branches and packs of orange leaves.

"This is it," Violet mumbled behind me. I took a deep breath, clenched my fists, and started towards the building.

Only to stop halfway out the edge of the forest.

Remember how just a second ago I mentioned the wall and how most of it was hidden by trees?

It wasn't.

It was _gone_.

In front of me was a huge chunk of bricks held together by weakening mortar, scraps of metal twisted into unrecognizable shapes. Weeds crawled through the wreckage, sprouts of light against the dark.

I ran.

_This can't be it. My School. It's not._

Only one way to prove it.

I flew down passage ways, jumped over rubble, and all the while my brain kept screaming at me that this wasn't it. It couldn't be. If it was, we'd been defeated before we'd even started.

I skidded to a halt near another section of an old wall.

There it was.

The one thing that could prove this wasn't a nightmare, that any moment I'd wake up, hyperventilate, beat Shadow to a pulp, and find my daughter.

It wasn't the most obvious thing. Just a slab of wall, charred and crumbling and being overtaken by weeds. What made it significant was the small design on the edge, a break in the middle that matched the width of a cell bar.

Shadow and I had drawn it the day before he'd raped me.

I'm pretty sure I screamed.

My foot whipped out and kicked the drawing, flames emerging from my hands as I lashed out at the wall. I hated Shadow. For making me trust him, for betraying me, for stealing Sammy and Artemis and Apollo. I wish he had died, wish I'd never met him. I hated him. I hated him I hated him ihatedhim ihatedhim -

Arms wrapped around me, trying to cut off my fury. I turned, wanting to rip Fang to shreds and ending up crying my eyes out on his shoulder.

He didn't say anything, just stood there. I'd say he was hugging me, but that's probably against his Man Code.

"T-this is ridiculous," I sniffled. "S-s-she said t-that they wou-would be here."

"Who did?"

Right. I hadn't told them. "This old lady…she knew about Sammy. She said she'd be here!"

"What _exactly_ did she say?"

I sniffed again, making some really bad taste enter my mouth. Ew. Another reason to hate crying. "She…she said that she was at home. _My _home, where I was born."

Fang leaned back just a little and looked at me. "You weren't born here, Al."

"Wh-what?"

"You and Max are twins. Max was born in Death Valley, California, like the rest of the Flock."

I stared at him.

"_You must return to your birthplace, the School you hate more than anything." _Two sentences, both contradicting the other.

If Fang was right, I'd screwed us up big time. California was on the other side of the freaking _country_. Even a non-stop flight at top speed would take at _least_ a week. Probably more. Shadow could move Sammy anywhere in that amount of time.

Yet it was a reasonable answer.

But I _hated_ this School, almost as much as I hated Shadow.

Didn't I?

I'd lost my best friend here, been totally and utterly betrayed by him here. I'd been raped. Almost destroyed. I'd gone through all sorts of torture. But then again…I'd found Violet and Gaia here. I'd escaped because of them. I'd become friends with Artemis and her little brother. I'd gotten my daughter here.

And the other School? I'd been created there. I'd lost a sister I'd never even really known I'd had (even though she turned out to be a traitor too). I'd become an elemental there, which was both a blessing and a curse. If I hadn't been Changed, I probably wouldn't have gone through all that crap. Could have escaped a year earlier with my sister and her friends. Maybe could have even stopped them from ditching Fang.

Which was worse?

"California…that's a long ways away," I told him quietly, wanting to cry all over again.

Fang gave me a lop-sided smile. "At least you'll get lots of bacon along the way."

And while I cracked up, I actually felt hope.

* * *

**Ew. Sappy ending. Kill me.**

**Yeah. You guys will anyways. Love?**

**GUESS WHAT? I'm about to file this story as complete. And then start on the sequel (…yay…).**

**But hey, that means we get to start the part everyone's been looking forward to:**

**MAX VERSUS ALEX.**

**Go ahead. Cackle gleefully. You know you want to.**

**Doesn't matter if you're a Flex shipper or a Fax obsessor, admit it: reading about Max and Alex beating the living crap out of each other amuses you.**

**It's called **_**Maximum**_** (What? This was called Alexandria, so in the spirit of the twins, I figured I'd use her name too), and will probably have a retarded summary. Much like this one. But worse.**

**So I'll get right on that. Pinky promise. -holds out pinky-**

**And now, for the awards of doom I randomly made up:**

Awards for the story of doom:

* * *

**Reviewers:**

Biggest **MAX VS. ALEX** shipper: **MaxRideFreak**

Biggest Fax shipper: **account has been canceled**

Biggest Flex shipper: There is no way I can discern who wanted it more (that's what sheee saaaid). Some of you hated the idea and then were like OMGZ I WUFFLES THIS, WHY COULDN'T THIS BE IN THE BOOK? And so on and so forth. So. I'll just nod and ramble and point randomly.

Dedicated fan freak: **MaxRide101**

Awesomest anonymous reviewers: banangowaffesandpudding and Ari (who happens to share the name of one of my friends. Creeper.)

13th reviewer: **everyoneisMISunderstood**

66th reviewer: **DarkAngelWings159**

69th Reviewer: **MaxRide101**

100th reviewer: **Ari**

136th Reviewer: **Ari**

Top Three People Who Got the References:

**GreyPurpleBlack**: 3

**DarkAngelWings159**: 3

**MaxRideFreak**: 2

**Chapters and Such:**

Most awkward chapter to write: Trapped: Alex POV

Favorite chapter to write: I Hate Trees: Fang POV

New non-cussing word: Fanging/Fang

Worst chapters EVAR: Rescue, My Sister, and Let the Games Begin: Fang POV

**Random Things I've Learned From This Story and Its Reviewers:**

If someone gives you Kit-Kats, you have to wait until Fang comes around to eat them.

Squirt bottles are deadly weapons of mass destruction.

Fanfiction writers can influence the way reviewers curse.

Percy Jackson is a standard.

Meaning that if you mention New York, people start to wonder if you're going to start a crossover.

It is entirely possible to know a song by simply writing one line that took me three months to figure out what it said.

I am not the most ignorant blond in the world. (Three years to figure out the C was a chicken…)

And last but not least: Getting writer's block equals a slow and painful death.

**Oddest Theory:**

Hm, let me guess, the creepy Fate lady is future Alex, maybe future Sammy? -DarkAngelWIngs159

* * *

**Love, iPods, bacon, Kit-Kats, and The Squirt Bottle of Doom,**

**Daughters of Night**

**(That's Ms. Creeper to you, less awesome creeper.)**


End file.
